Lorde’s No. 1 sophomore album Melodrama is no slump, and lead single “Green Light” is evidence enough of that. There’s more to the record than just that one song, though. It’s a wonderful listen literally from start to finish: “Green Light” is the opener, while the second single, “Perfect Places,” is the closing track that ends the record on a high note. Now the latter song has its own video, and it’s definitely true to its title, because it was filmed in some pretty perfect-looking places.
In the clip — which was directed by Grant Singer, who also helmed the “Green Light” video — Lorde finds herself plopping sugar cubes in her tea by the ocean, shooting coconuts out of their tree, and in a bunch of other lovely areas doing music video stuff. It’s beautiful, and the dynamic and anthemic pop track perfectly scores these moments of diverse aesthetic wonder in a way that both the song and visual deserve.
Lorde previously annotated the song’s lyrics on Genius, and she said that it was inspired by the hot New York summer of 2016:
“This song started coming together late summer of 2016 in New York and the news was just horrific every day and it was so hot in this sickly incorrect kind of way, like what I imagine the weather in a disaster movie is like just before the bomb hits or the aliens land. It sort of drove me insane, I was walking around Midtown every day and felt like I was this close to ripping my clothes off or freaking out at a stranger. And every day in the news it’d be like “Silver lining! Record high temperatures all weekend” and I’d think “DON’T YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT THIS MEANS!!!!!!!! WE’RE ALL GOING TO DIE!!!” This is probably the most Melodrama line on the whole album.”
Watch the “Perfect Places” video above, and revisit our glowing review of Melodrama here.
