The Man with the Axe

## Audio

"**The Man with the Axe**" is a song by Lorde from her third studio album, *Solar Power*. It is the seventh track from the album and was written by Lorde herself.

## About the song

"*The Man With The Axe*" is a love letter to Lorde's lover.

*“I wrote this track almost as a poem. I was very hung over and I think that fragile, vulnerable quality made it in here. It’s funny because it’s kind of melancholy, but I also think of it as very cozy. I’m expressing a huge amount of love and affection for someone. To me, it sounds very private—I sort of don’t even like thinking about people listening to it because it's just for me. [US producer] Malay did the coolest chords. I really didn’t change the poem, apart from maybe taking one line out. That was one of the biggest accomplishments of the album.”*

## Cross-references

Lorde commented in an interview that singing the *'Melodrama'* tracks makes her relive a very sad moment in her life, and she mentions this briefly in "*The Man with the Axe*":

*"With my fistful of tunes that it's painful to play"*

The lyrics *“And a throat that fills with panic every festival day/ dutifully falling apart for the princess of Norway”* from “*The Man with the Axe*” is an allusion to the day when Lorde, sick, performed on the Melodrama Tour with the Norwegian royal family in the audience.

## Critical reception

According to *Rolling Stone Brasil*, it is the second best song on 'Solar Power', only behind "Stoned at the Nail Salon".

*"The only romantic song evident on the album, according to Billboard, it has well-crafted verses that, in fact, suggest a sincere and intimate passion for the lyrical self. "**I thought I was a genius, but now I'm 22 years old**," reflects Lorde in a sound dependent on guitar strings added to whispers in more confessional moments."*

## Chart performance

In New Zealand, the song peaked at number 14 on the *Top 20 NZ Singles* chart (Songs by New Zealand artists) and number 43 on the *US Hot Rock & Alternative Songs* chart.

## Lyrics

If I had to break it down

I'd say it's the way you love to dance

Moving the furniture when my back is turned

A flick of the lights and the world falls away

And your office job

And your silver hair

But our shapes in the dark are the reason I've stayed for all these years

I thought I was a genius

But now I'm 22

And it's starting to

Feel like all I know how to do is put on a suit and take it away

With my fistful of tunes that it's painful to play

Fingernail worlds like favorite seashells

They fill up my nights and then they float away

I've got hundreds of gowns

I've got paintings in frames

And a throat that fills with panic every festival day

Dutifully falling apart for the Princess of Norway

But you with your doll's lashes, your infinite t-shirts

I should've known when your favorite record was the same as my father's

You'd take me down

I guess I'll always be this way

Swallowed up by the words and halfway to space

But there by the fire you offered your hand

And as I took it I loved you, the boy with the plan

You felled me clean as a pine

The man with the axe

And the love in his eyes

We've been through so many hard times

I'm writing a love song for you, baby

## Trivia

"**The Man with the Axe**" is a solo composition.

The song includes samples of applause from a YouTube video of Lorde’s last performance on the Melodrama World Tour, at *Corona Capital* festival in Mexico City in 2018.

## References

1. ↑ https://music.apple.com/us/album/solar-power/1572940891
2. ↑ https://rollingstone.uol.com.br/musica/5-melhores-musicas-de-solar-power-da-lorde-big-star-fallen-fruit-e-mais-lista/