Mood Ring

## Music Video

"**Mood Ring**" is a song by New Zealand singer-songwriter Lorde. It is the eleventh track and second single from Lorde's third studio album, *Solar Power*. It was released on August 17, 2021 through Republic Records. The song was written and produced by Lorde and Jack Antonoff.

## Background

On June 2, 2021, an insider revealed that Lorde would be releasing the lead single from her long-awaited third studio album, "Solar Power, and a promotional single titled "**Mood Ring**". The track listing for New Zealand singer-songwriter Lorde's third studio album *Solar Power* was announced on 21 June 2021, with *"Mood Ring"* as the album's eleventh track.

"Solar Power" was released on June 11, 2021, followed by "Stoned at the Nail Salon" on July 21. On 16 August 2021, Lorde's website was updated with a mood ring chart. The same day, Lorde updated her website announcing *"Mood Ring"* release for the next day.

In the pre-premiere live stream, she talked about the meaning of the song:

> *This is a song I am very excited about, it’s so much fun to me. Obviously when making this album I did a deep-dive into ’60s, Flower Child culture. I wanted to understand the commune life, dropping out from society and trying to start again. That really resonated to me when writing this album. One thing that occurred to me as a major parallel between that time and our time is our wellness culture and our culture of spirituality, pseudo-spirituality, wellness, pseudo-wellness. Things like eating a macro-biotic vegan diet or burning sage, keeping crystals, reading tarot cards or your horoscope. These were all things that they were dabbling in back then, and that me and my girlfriends are dabbling in today. I was like “I think there’s a pop song in here.” So this is kind of my extremely satirical look at all of those vibes.*
>
>

In an email sent to fans for the release of "Mood Ring", Lorde revealed she wrote the song in late 2020.

> I kept waking up in the night and writing lines of lyric into my phone, which is how I usually know something’s gonna become a song. It was really interesting distilling some thoughts on wellness culture and the search for spiritual meaning in our modern world into a 3-minute pop song.
>
>

## Music Video

A music video for the song, directed by Lorde and Joel Kefali, was released at 7AM NZDT on 18 August 2021.  Claire Shaffer of *Rolling Stone* described the video as "a continuation of her "Solar Power" visual", where "[Lorde], now with bleached-blonde hair, leads a cult-like ceremony under a sunlit tent, surrounded by her followers in matching jade green outfits".  *Vulture* writer Zoe Haylock stated that the video displays Lorde "using crystals, vitamins, sun salutations, and more to 'get well from the inside.'"

## Critical reception

Writing for *Billboard*, Hannah Dailey called the song a "airy, guitar-led track", which "both lightly mocks the promotion of a phony holistic lifestyle and sympathizes with people who find comfort in that same lifestyle".  Claire Shaffer of *Rolling Stone* called "Mood Ring" a "mellow acoustic track with only the faintest hint of percussion", sonically comparing it to the previously-released "Solar Power" and "Stoned at the Nail Salon".  In a negative review, *Pitchfork* described it as "less exciting than hoped for" and said that Lorde's critique of wellness culture seemed "pretty trite for someone who's previously been so ahead of the curve".

## Chart performance

The song peaked at number 93 on the *Billboard Global 200* and entered charts in countries such as Australia, Canada, the United States, Hungary, Ireland, Sweden and the United Kingdom, with its peak position - ten - in New Zealand.

## Lyrics

I’m tryna blow bubbles but inside

Can’t seem to fix my mood

Today it’s as dark as my roots, if I

If I ever let them grow out

Now all of my oceans have riptides

Can’t seem to find what’s wrong

The whole world is letting me down

Don’t you think the early 2000s seem so far away?

Ladies, begin your sun salutations

Transcendental in your meditations

Love and light

You can burn sage

And I’ll cleanse the crystals

We can get high

But only if the wind blows just right

I can’t feel a thing

I keep looking at my mood ring

Tell me how I’m feeling

Floating away, floating away

I’m tryna get well from the inside

Plants and celebrity news

All the vitamins I consume

Let’s fly somewhere eastern

They’ll have what I need (let's go)

Ladies, begin your sun salutations

Pluto in Scorpio generation

Love and light

You can burn sage

And I’ll cleanse the crystals

We can get high

But only if the wind blows just right

I can’t feel a thing

I keep looking at my mood ring

Tell me how I’m feeling

Floating away, floating away

All the sad girls sing

We’ll keep dancing til the mood rings

Tell us how we’re feeling

Floating away, floating away

Take me to some kinda place

Anywhere

Watch the sun set

Look back on my life

I just wanna know

Will it be alright?

## Credits and personnel

Credits adapted from Tidal.

* Lorde – vocals, songwriting, production
* Jack Antonoff – songwriting, production, bass, acoustic guitar, electric 6-string, keyboards, programming
* Matt Chamberlain – drums, programming
* Phoebe Bridgers – background vocals
* Clairo – background vocals
* Lawrence Arabia – background vocals
* Marlon Williams – background vocals
* Mark "Spike" Stent – mixing
* Chris Gehringer – mastering engineer
* Will Quinnell – mastering

## References

1. ↑ https://www.nme.com/en\_au/news/music/lorde-reveals-release-date-and-tracklist-for-new-album-solar-power-2974545
2. ↑ https://www.irishnews.com/magazine/entertainment/2021/08/16/news/lorde-announces-imminent-release-of-latest-single-mood-ring-2419902/
3. ↑ https://www.nme.com/news/music/lorde-announces-new-single-mood-ring-will-arrive-this-week-3020552
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 https://www.billboard.com/music/pop/lorde-blonde-mood-ring-video-9616012/
5. ↑ https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/lorde-mood-ring-1213288/
6. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20210817221314/https://www.vulture.com/2021/08/lorde-drops-mood-ring-music-video-watch.html
7. ↑ https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/lorde-mood-ring-1213288/
8. ↑ https://pitchfork.com/reviews/tracks/lorde-mood-ring/
9. ↑ https://listen.tidal.com/album/194210337/credits