Lorde, Glasgow review: 'more admirable than lovable'

Lorde, Hydro, Glasgow ★★★

Lorde follows the likes of Kendrick Lamar, Charli XCX and Billie Eilish in putting a lot of work and budget into creating a (relatively) minimalist but dramatic arena show, interacting artily with a handful of dancers and musicians. Her Ultrasound World Tour is more impressive than exciting, more admirable than lovable but also fitting for this most serious of pop stars.

Lorde | Getty Images

The show began with a bassy doof and one shard of light. Gradually, Lorde was picked out in the murk, casually dressed and wigging out to the electro eruption of Hammers. In a sign of the singlemindedness to come, she dispensed with her global breakthrough hit, Royals, early on in the set, opening a capella before the rumbling beat arrived. David Bowie's onetime favourite emerging songwriter has never bettered that calling card, with its smart lyrical spin on youthful invincibility.

The rest of the set was often wanting that level of simple joy and melody. Instead, she proceeded with the hip kid beats of Broken Glass, for which she was joined by a small coterie of dancers doing their own thing.

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From here, the show oscillated between macro set pieces, such as dicing with a giant fan on Buzzcut Season and gamboling around on a treadmill for favourite fan frolic Supercut, and micro moments such as hand-held camera close-ups on her sweaty torso.

During Current Affairs, a group of guitarists materialised and surrounded her like a protective shield as she shed her jeans to cheers from the crowd. In contrast, the mellow Big Star was performed with everyone on the stage collapsed on the floor and filmed from above.

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Extra marks for originality, but the fans just wanted to lap up the gauche pop of The Louvre and Team, holler along to Perfect Places and leap around to the dance pop of What Was That and the euphoric chant of Green Light.

This would have been a good point to bow out, energy-wise, but in a show which never quite went where expected, Lorde opted to promenade through the crowd to a smaller stage to end on Ribs, “the oldest and most precious song we have”.

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