If you’re searching for the best Lorde songs of all time, you’ve come to the right place. From the moment the New Zealand singer and songwriter burst onto the global music scene as a teenager, Lorde has consistently delivered tracks that are poetic, deeply personal, and sonically unlike anything else in pop music. Whether you’re a longtime fan who memorized every lyric on Pure Heroine or a new listener discovering her Solar Power era, this list has something for every music lover. Pair your listening session with the right audio gear — check out our guide to the best headphones for music lovers to truly experience her layered production.
Lorde, born Ella Yelich-O’Connor, released her debut extended play in 2012 and quickly became one of the most critically acclaimed artists of her generation. Her ability to capture the complexity of adolescence, heartbreak, and existential longing in just a few lines of verse has made her a generational voice. This ranking pulls from her three studio albums — Pure Heroine (2013), Melodrama (2017), and Solar Power (2021) — as well as her most recent 2024 collaborations, ranking them not just by chart success but by artistic impact, lyrical depth, and cultural resonance.
400 Lux
Opening Pure Heroine with a whispered sense of wonder, “400 Lux” is a quiet anthem about the magic of ordinary teenage moments — cruising through the city at night, sharing silence with someone you love. The production is restrained and skeletal, allowing Lorde’s voice to carry the emotional weight of every syllable. It’s a song that feels like a memory already forming in real time, and it set the tone for an album that would redefine what pop music could be about.
White Teeth Teens
“White Teeth Teens” is one of the most socially observant tracks on Pure Heroine, skewering the performative coolness and social hierarchies of high school culture with sharp precision. Lorde’s detached vocal delivery perfectly mirrors the theme of feeling like an outsider watching the popular crowd from a distance. The track’s hypnotic minimalism makes it deceptively easy to underestimate, but its lyrical intelligence rewards repeated listening in a way that few pop songs can claim.
Sober
“Sober” from Melodrama captures the wild, disorienting energy of a late-night party with a kind of theatrical urgency that few artists can pull off convincingly. The production by Jack Antonoff crackles with nervous electricity, and Lorde’s vocal performance shifts between euphoria and dread within the same breath. It’s a song that understands how pleasure and anxiety can be indistinguishable at a certain hour, and it remains one of the most viscerally exciting cuts in her catalog.
Stoned at the Nail Salon
A reflective, mid-tempo gem from Solar Power, “Stoned at the Nail Salon” finds Lorde in a contemplative mood, questioning the choices that define adulthood and wondering whether she chose the right life. The folk-inflected production feels warm and lived-in, like an afternoon spent drifting through half-formed thoughts on a quiet Sunday. It’s a song that resonates deeply with anyone navigating the gap between the life they imagined and the one they’re actually living.
Glory and Gore
“Glory and Gore” is arguably one of the most musically ambitious tracks from Pure Heroine, blending tribal percussion with Lorde’s icy vocals to create something that feels ancient and futuristic simultaneously. The song uses the metaphor of gladiatorial combat to examine the spectacle of fame and the way society consumes public figures. It’s an early indicator of just how far Lorde’s artistic vision extended beyond the typical teenage pop star narrative.
The Louvre
Named after the iconic Parisian museum, “The Louvre” from Melodrama is a soaring declaration of infatuation — the kind where you’re convinced your love story belongs on the walls of history’s greatest art institution. The way the song builds from intimate verses into an anthemic chorus mirrors the breathless escalation of new romance, and Lorde’s ability to make grandiosity feel earned is fully on display here. It’s one of her most joyful songs, and that joy feels all the more precious knowing how the album’s emotional arc ultimately turns.
Hard Feelings / Loveless
“Hard Feelings/Loveless” is one of the most structurally interesting tracks Lorde has ever released, essentially functioning as two thematically linked songs stitched together into a single emotional journey. The first half is a tender, aching dissection of the aftermath of a relationship — the quiet fury of knowing exactly when things began to fall apart. The second half pivots into a winking, synth-driven interlude about a generation raised on screens and emotional detachment, making it one of the most culturally sharp moments on Melodrama.
Mood Ring
“Mood Ring” from Solar Power is a satirical take on wellness culture and the commodification of spiritual practices, delivered with a pop sweetness that makes the critique land even harder. Lorde skewers the performative spirituality of crystal healing, astrology apps, and self-help aesthetics with a knowing smirk, all while wrapping it in genuinely catchy production. It’s one of her wittiest songs, demonstrating that she can deliver social commentary with a lightness of touch that prevents it from ever feeling preachy.
Yellow Flicker Beat
Written for The Hunger Games: Mockingjay soundtrack, “Yellow Flicker Beat” gave Lorde the opportunity to channel Katniss Everdeen’s defiant inner world through her own artistic lens. The song is minimal and cinematic, built around a pulsing rhythm that feels like a heartbeat accelerating toward something inevitable. It stands as one of the best soundtrack contributions of the last decade, proving that Lorde could adapt her voice to serve a larger narrative without losing an ounce of her distinctive identity.
A World Alone
Closing Pure Heroine on a note of bittersweet euphoria, “A World Alone” is perhaps the most emotionally generous song Lorde wrote in her debut era. It’s a celebration of real friendship — the kind that involves driving around at night, talking over each other, and building your own mythology separate from the rest of the world. The production swells beautifully in the final minutes, and Lorde’s vocal performance is full of warmth that contrasts meaningfully with the album’s more detached earlier tracks.
Writer in the Dark
“Writer in the Dark” is one of the most powerful vocal showcases in Lorde’s entire discography, stripping away the electronics and synths to leave her voice nearly exposed over a simple piano arrangement. The song is a post-breakup declaration of survival — a promise to herself that she will transform her pain into art and outlast the person who hurt her. The falsetto she hits near the song’s climax is one of the most genuinely spine-tingling moments in modern pop music, and it earns every second of the drama it creates.
Tennis Court
“Tennis Court” is the song that introduced millions of listeners to Lorde’s world, and it remains one of the most perfectly constructed pop tracks of the 2010s. Built on almost nothing — a finger snap, a bass pulse, and her voice — the song captures the peculiar alienation of sudden fame with the clarity of someone who had clearly been thinking about it for years. It’s a mission statement disguised as a pop song, and the fact that it still sounds fresh a decade after its release is a testament to just how timeless its core ideas are.
Perfect Places
Closing Melodrama with a question rather than an answer, “Perfect Places” is a euphoric and slightly desperate anthem about the search for meaning in pleasure. Lorde throws herself into the energy of parties and nights out, all while asking whether any of it is actually working, whether joy can be manufactured through the right combination of music and company and movement. The production is enormous and celebratory, and the tension between the sound and the lyrics creates one of the most emotionally complex finales in recent pop album history.
Homemade Dynamite
“Homemade Dynamite” from Melodrama is an exhilarating rush of a song, capturing the chaotic, crackling energy of young people gathering together and making something explosive out of nothing. The production is fractured and kinetic, with sounds that feel like they’re barely holding together — which is precisely the point, because Lorde is describing a moment that feels thrilling precisely because it can’t last. It’s one of the most sonically adventurous tracks she has released, and its frenetic energy makes it irresistible for fans who want to experience the full spectrum of her best pop songs.
Liability
“Liability” is one of the most emotionally devastating songs Lorde has ever written, a bare piano ballad about the experience of being told you are too intense, too much, too difficult to love. Written during the breakup of a relationship, it’s a song that manages to be deeply personal while simultaneously speaking to anyone who has ever felt like they needed to shrink themselves to be accepted. The restraint of the production — just piano and voice, with almost no ornamentation — makes the emotional nakedness of the lyrics feel genuinely raw in a way that more polished productions often fail to achieve.
Supercut
“Supercut” closes the first half of Melodrama and functions as one of the most emotionally intelligent songs about memory and self-deception ever written for a pop audience. Lorde describes the way the mind edits a failed relationship into a highlight reel — the “supercut” of only the good moments — and how that distortion keeps you trapped in grief longer than the reality would warrant. The production is euphoric and devastating at the same time, building to a kind of release that feels both cathartic and bittersweet, making it one of the most technically and emotionally accomplished songs in her catalog.
Solar Power
The title track of her third album, “Solar Power” marked a dramatic sonic reinvention for Lorde, trading the electronic minimalism of her previous work for sun-drenched acoustic guitars and a breezy, almost hypnotic groove. The song is about the transcendence of being outdoors in the summer sun — losing yourself in warmth and light until the anxieties of the modern world dissolve entirely. It introduced a new chapter in Lorde’s artistry that divided some fans but ultimately demonstrated her refusal to repeat herself or stay comfortable in any single aesthetic lane.
Green Light
Serving as the lead single for Melodrama and signaling one of the most anticipated comebacks in recent pop history, “Green Light” is a masterpiece of emotional release, translating the very specific feeling of watching someone who hurt you move on before you were ready. The production — a piano-driven pre-chorus that explodes into a euphoric, almost hypnotic drop — was a deliberate departure from the minimalism of Pure Heroine and announced Lorde as an artist in full command of her evolution. It remains one of the definitive pop songs of the 2010s, and its chorus still hits with the same visceral force it did on first listen.
Team
“Team” is perhaps the purest distillation of everything that made Pure Heroine so culturally significant — its rejection of conventional glamour in favor of something more grounded, communal, and real. Lorde wrote it as a celebration of her hometown and the people in it who would never appear in a music video or on a red carpet but who made her who she is. To get the most out of songs like this one, it’s worth investing in quality audio equipment — our earbuds comparison guide can help you find the perfect pair to catch every layered detail in the production. The song’s quiet pride and warmth have made it a perennial fan favorite.
Royals
“Royals” is not just Lorde’s greatest song — it is one of the most culturally significant debut singles of the 21st century, a song that diagnosed the hollow excess of mainstream pop culture and proposed a different set of values with extraordinary clarity and confidence. Written when she was just 15 years old, it introduced the world to a voice unlike any other: precise, knowing, a little wry, and entirely uninterested in pretending to want things she didn’t actually want. The song won two Grammy Awards, topped charts in dozens of countries, and launched Lorde into a category of artists whose debut moment immediately felt historic — and more than a decade later, it remains the benchmark against which all her subsequent work is measured.
Bonus: New Releases Worth Knowing
Girl, So Confusing (featuring Lorde) — 2024
One of the most talked-about songs of 2024, this collaboration between Charli XCX and Lorde began as an introspective track on Charli’s landmark album Brat before being remixed into a full duet that had the internet in conversation for weeks. The original song explored the complicated dynamics of female friendship in the music industry, the unspoken competitiveness and comparison that can exist even between people who genuinely admire each other, and Lorde’s verse in the remix responded to the song with her characteristic directness and vulnerability. The fact that both artists were willing to be so candid about a real, complex aspect of their relationship made the track feel genuinely unprecedented in the world of pop collaborations.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Lorde’s most famous song?
“Royals” is universally recognized as Lorde’s most famous song. Released in 2013 as the lead single from her debut album Pure Heroine, it topped charts in multiple countries and won two Grammy Awards, including Song of the Year. It remains one of the most iconic debut singles in modern pop history and introduced Lorde to a global audience.
How many studio albums has Lorde released?
Lorde has released three studio albums to date: Pure Heroine in 2013, Melodrama in 2017, and Solar Power in 2021. Each album represents a distinct artistic era, with Lorde consistently reinventing her sound and lyrical focus between releases. Fans continue to anticipate her fourth studio album eagerly.
Is Lorde from New Zealand?
Yes, Lorde was born and raised in Auckland, New Zealand. Her New Zealand identity has been a significant part of her artistic persona, most notably in “Team,” where she references her hometown specifically and celebrates a way of life far removed from the luxury imagery she critiques in “Royals.” She remains one of the most internationally successful artists New Zealand has ever produced.
What genre does Lorde make?
Lorde’s music spans several genres but is most commonly categorized as indie pop, art pop, and electropop. Her debut album leaned heavily on minimal electronic production, while Melodrama incorporated baroque pop and synth-pop influences. Her third album Solar Power marked a significant shift toward acoustic and folk-influenced sounds, demonstrating the breadth of her musical curiosity.
Did Lorde release any new music in 2024?
Yes, Lorde appeared on the remix of “Girl, So Confusing,” a collaboration with British artist Charli XCX that was released in 2024 as part of the Brat album remix project. The track was one of the most celebrated songs of the year and sparked widespread discussion about female friendship and rivalry in the music industry. It confirmed that Lorde remains one of the most artistically compelling voices in contemporary pop.