The Louvre

Jack Antonoff

"**The Louvre**" (originally titled "Boom Boom") is a song from Lorde's sophomore album, *Melodrama*.

## Background

On May 18th, Lorde released the track list for Melodrama and "The Louvre" was the sixth song on the list.

In January 2015, Lorde posted a cryptic tweet that read "Perfect is in the Louvre". This could be a combination of "Perfect Places", "Writer in the Dark" and this song.

There is an extended version where she repeatedly sings "whoa, oh-oh" during the outro.

### Writing and composition

The song had co-production from Flume, along with Jack Antonoff and Lorde herself. The song is assumed to be about the happiness during the beginning of her relationship with James Lowe. Lorde herself commented on the track on a Spinoff Exclusive Podcast saying:

“I wanted to [give the feeling of] just like the big sun-soaked dumbness of falling in love and it’s like your whole head is like glue, it’s amazing. It is like drugs. It’s like ‘I just want to be by you all the time, I just want to listen to you talk and look at your face do all those dumb things that it does when you talk. It’s just like this big dumb joy and it’s intense – and I feel like the instrumentation in that song kind of helped it get there.”

## Critical Reception

"The Louvre" received critical acclaim from music critics, with many praising its lyrical content and calling it a stand-out track on *Melodrama*. In a review roundup for *The Fader*, editor Owen Myers described the song as a "biting call-and-answer pre-chorus [that] flips between feelings of self-doubt and giddy romance." Aimee Cliff said that Lorde captured the "self-importance of first love so well." Patrick D. McDermott compared the guitar outro to the to the work of The Cure or The Cranberries. *DIY* noted that a "rushed lyric half way through the second verse epitomises the whole record." Kitty Empire of *The Guardian* called it a "dazzling synthesis of pro-dramatics and originality" and said the track was "nigh-on impossible to dance to." *Pitchfork*'s Stacey Anderson noted the song captured an "immersive bliss", as well as a "shared frequency of love just as irrepressibly grandiose as its sound."

Several critics placed "The Louvre" on their year-end, best songs lists. *Stereogum* put the recording in the number 13 spot on its year-end list, saying that *Melodrama* described the "wreckage that can result from passionate youthful romance," but that the song also served as a reminder of what "giddy, intoxicating wonders can come of it too." On their year-end list, *Vice* editor Larry Fitzmaurice ranked the song at number 47, calling it one of the album's "weirdest moments." He felt the song "continually [built] to a climax that never happen[ed]." He noted, "It's delayed gratification at its finest — only, the gratification arrives via the endless delay, with dusky 4AD-ish guitars ushering the whole thing out of the room. You never know what you're gonna get from Lorde, and "The Louvre" is just one of many examples of why that's a very, very good thing." Jenn Pelly of *Pitchfork* ranked the track at number 42 on his year-end list, calling the song's "emotional precision" overwhelming. On *Spin*'s year-end list, "The Louvre" was ranked at number nine, with the publication calling the internal monologue "hilariously refreshing and entirely relatable," and one of Lorde's "strongest [songs] to date.

## Live Performances

Lorde first performed "The Louvre" at the Glastonbury Festival in London. The performance began with a clear box slowly filling with dancers, followed by Lorde's arrival. The box was described as titling "back-and-forth" above the singer's head as the performance continued. She dedicated the track to any audience member "harbouring a secret crush." The performance received acclaim from critics, with *The Independent* giving it a four out of five-star review, calling it a "bold and brilliant" debut.

The track was also performed at the Bowery Auditorium in New York City, on the night of the singer's album release party, with two other tracks. For the Melodrama World Tour (2017–2018), Lorde performs "The Louvre" after her first costume change. It is proceeded by vintage video snippets that flicker across a "giant old-school TV." A reviewer for the *London Evening Standard* described the videos as "art and music merged into a cohesive exploration of love, loss and loneliness." The track is performed in a set of three acts with "The Louvre" being part of the second. After the clips, Lorde returns to the stage wearing a white gown, a different look from the black chiffon dress she wore earlier. She prefaces each song with a backstory, saying "The Louvre" is about the "ups and downs of a new crush."

## Lyrics

###

 Well, summer slipped us underneath her tongue

Our days and nights are perfumed with obsession

Half of my wardrobe is on your bedroom floor

Use our eyes, throw our hands overboard

I am your sweetheart psychopathic crush

Drink up your movements, still I can't get enough

I overthink your p-punctuation use

Not my fault, just a thing that my mind do

A rush at the beginning

I get caught up, just for a minute

But lover, you're the one to blame, all that you're doing

Can you hear the violence?

Megaphone to my chest

Broadcast the boom boom boom boom and make 'em all dance to it

Broadcast the boom boom boom boom and make 'em all dance to it

Broadcast the boom boom boom boom and make 'em all dance to it

Broadcast the boom boom boom boom and make 'em all dance to it

Broadcast the boom boom boom boom and make 'em all dance to it

Our thing progresses

I call and you come through

Blow all my friendships

To sit in hell with you

But we're the greatest

They'll hang us in the Louvre

Down the back, but who cares - still the Louvre

Okay I know that you are not my type (still I fall)

I'm just the sucker who let you fill her mind (but what about love?)

Nothing wrong with it

Supernatural

Just move in close to me, closer, you'll feel it coasting

A rush at the beginning

I get caught up, just for a minute

But lover, you're the one to blame, all that you're doing

Can you hear the violence?

Megaphone to my chest

Broadcast the boom boom boom boom and make 'em all dance to it

Broadcast the boom boom boom boom and make 'em all dance to it

Broadcast the boom boom boom boom and make 'em all dance to it

Broadcast the boom boom boom boom and make 'em all dance to it

Broadcast the boom boom boom boom and make 'em all dance to it

###

"**Sober**"
"Homemade Dynamite"
"**The Louvre**"

"Hard Feelings/Loveless"
"Sober II (Melodrama)"
"Writer in the Dark"

"Liability (Reprise)"
"**Perfect Places**"
"**Homemade Dynamite (Remix)**"