Lorde’s What Was That Lyrics & Meaning: A Jagged Portrait of Heartbreak & Youth

Before the first beat even lands, Lorde already has our attention—biking through city streets, dancing under blue lights, and inserting real-time chaos into a music video filmed less than a day after her pop-up show got shut down by police.

What Was That, released April 24, 2025, doesn’t announce a comeback so much as it hijacks the moment.

There was no formal announcement for the release—no press teaser, no lead-in campaign.

@lorde

♬ WWT – Lorde

Lorde uploaded a 17-second TikTok of herself lip-syncing in Washington Square Park, and the full track arrived within days.

The production is stripped back and intentionally jagged, matching the volatility she’s describing.

This isn’t a clean break from her past albums, though. The song pulls threads from Melodrama, Pure Heroine, even fragments of Solar Power—but flips them inside out.

That same youthful unraveling from Ribs is here, but now it’s older, colder, and less interested in wrapping anything up neatly.

Already drawing comparisons to the chaotic energy of Green Light, the aching solitude of Liability, and the moody haze of Pure Heroine, What Was That draws from familiar parts of Lorde’s discography but doesn’t settle into nostalgia.

When she sings about “a chair and a bed,” “covering the mirrors,” and “making a meal I won’t eat,” she builds a space of isolation that feels lived in.

These aren’t abstract metaphors—they’re snapshots of someone disappearing into themselves.

Co-produced with Dan Nigro and Jim-E Stack, and backed by a gritty, synth-pop pulse, the song sidesteps tidy resolution. It sits in emotional ambiguity and doesn’t apologise for the discomfort.

What Was That music video: raw footage, real emotion

What Was That music video documents the lead-up and aftermath of her impromptu Washington Square Park appearance.

It captures Lorde wandering New York’s streets, biking through tunnels, and dancing defiantly where her public appearance had been shut down by police the day before.

The spontaneous, lo-fi feel is no gimmick. This is the chaos she’s documenting, and she’s in it.

My new music video What Was That. As little between us as possible. Aliveness over prowess. Naïveté over disenchantment. I LOVE YOU WE START HERE https://t.co/cuSijxfZe3 pic.twitter.com/jvlg0UHr8u

— Lorde (@lorde) April 24, 2025

As she wrote on her social media, “Aliveness over prowess. Naïveté over disenchantment. I LOVE YOU. WE START HERE.”

What Was That lyrics meaning: euphoria and devastation collide 

There’s no single answer to the question posed in the title—What Was That is a time capsule of emotional confusion.

In the first verse, Lorde isolates herself in a big-city apartment, surrounded by smoke and grief: “I cover up all the mirrors / I can’t see myself yet.”

The pre-chorus paints her state of mind with eerie clarity. By the time the chorus hits—“MDMA in the back garden, blow our pupils up / We kissed for hours straight, well, baby, what was that?”—we’re deep into euphoric disintegration.

Some listeners hear the track as a straightforward breakup song. Others, especially within Reddit discussions and fan theories, see it as a veiled reflection on her relationship with fame, or even a reckoning with lost youth.

The Coachella references, the allusion to her 17-year-old self, and the looping structure all suggest a flashback sequence shaped by longing and disorientation.

Sound and structure: the Lorde blueprint, rewired 

Sonically, What Was That feels like Melodrama’s emotionally volatile cousin.

The synth-pop production is taut and jittery, echoing the emotional messiness at its centre.

Dan Nigro’s influence is tangible, drawing from his recent work with Olivia Rodrigo and Chappell Roan.

Even so, the song still sounds unmistakably like Lorde. This isn’t the smooth, sun-drenched atmosphere of Solar Power—it’s erratic, shadowy, full of unresolved energy.

The ending cuts off abruptly. It doesn’t fade or resolve, which has fuelled theories that it leads straight into the next track on the album.

That unfinished quality isn’t a flaw, it instead reinforces the feeling that this song lives in the space between moments, never quite anchored.

What Was That by Lorde: release, reception, and resurgence 

In a note posted to her website, Lorde reflected on What Was That emerging out of a deep breakup, emotional upheaval, and recording sessions that captured raw feelings as they happened.

She described it as “the sound of my rebirth,” shaped by months of grief, creative spontaneity, and an obsessive focus on every sonic detail.

This background gives the track its jagged urgency and emotional volatility.

What Was That is Lorde’s first solo release since 2021. The anticipation was immediate.

First teased on TikTok, then unexpectedly played at a park appearance in NYC, the rollout blurred the line between performance and protest.

The song doesn’t explain itself. But its weight lands whether or not you catch every reference.

In classic Lorde fashion, she uses minimal lyrics to say far too much. The longing, the doubt, the grief—it’s all there.

The song leaves you reaching for a feeling trying to make sense of something that passed too fast to understand.

Lorde’s What Was That holds onto the fragments of a memory half-formed, a question left open.

It’s an open ended song that doesn’t chase clarity; however, it stays with you.

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Lorde What Was That Lyrics

Verse 1
A place in the city
A chair and a bed
I cover up all the mirrors
I can’t see myself yet
I wear smoke like a wedding veil
Make a meal I won’t eat
Step out into the street, alone in a sea
It comes over me

Pre-Chorus
Oh, I’m missin’ you
Yeah, I’m missin’ you
And all the things we used to do

Chorus
MDMA in the back garden, blow our pupils up
We kissed for hours straight, well, baby, what was that?
I remember sayin’ then, “This is the best cigarette of my life”
Well, I want you just like that
Indio haze, we’re in a sandstorm and it knocks me out
I didn’t know then that you’d never be enough, oh
Since l was seventeen, I gave you everything
Now, we wake from a dream, well, baby, what was that?

Post-Chorus
What was that?
Baby, what was that?

Verse 2
Do you know you’re still with me
When I’m out with my friends?
I stare at the painted faces
That talk current affairs
You had to know this was happenin’
You weren’t feelin’ my heat
When I’m in the blue light, down at Baby’s All Right
I face reality

Pre-Chorus
I tried (I tried) to let (To let)
Whatever has to pass through me
Pass through, but this is stayin’ a while, I know
It might not let me go

Chorus
MDMA in the back garden, blow our pupils up
We kissed for hours straight, well, baby, what was that?
I remember sayin’ then, “This is the best cigarette of my life”
Well, I want you just like that
Indio haze, we’re in a sandstorm and it knocks me out
I didn’t know then, but you’d never be enough, oh
Since l was seventeen, I gave you everything
Now, we wake from a dream, well, baby, what was that?

Post-Chorus
What was that?
‘Cause I want you just like that (When I’m in the blue light, I can make it alright)
What was that? (When I’m in the blue light, I can make it alright)
Baby, what was that?