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“What Was That”: A Breakup Anthem Full of Doubt and Reflection
After her 2021 album Solar Power, Lorde is back with a new single, “What Was That.” To celebrate the release of the track, which she called “one of my favorite songs I’ve ever written, ever produced,” Lorde threw an impromptu concert in NYC’s Washington Square Park. In a message to fans, Lorde described the single as “a rebirth,” an apt description for the synth-pop track that explores the fragility of life after love. The heartbroken lyrics and Lorde’s delivery — which sounds like she's simultaneously choking back tears and anger — capture the aftermath of a broken relationship and the lingering doubts whether the relationship meant as much to the other person — that perhaps the answer to “what was that?” is: nothing at all.
Verse 1 & Pre-Chorus: Setting the Scene of Isolation
Immediately, Lorde sets the scene of a shrunken world — a nondescript apartment, empty of everything but necessities, uneaten meals, and covered mirrors.
“A place in the city
A chair and a bed
I cover up all the mirrors
Can’t see myself yet
I wear smoke like a wedding veil
Make a meal I won’t eat”
The veil of smoke clearly calls to mind both a wedding veil and a mourning veil — highlighting the oscillating feelings of the narrator, and perhaps the differences of the partners — where one was thinking of marriage the other was already planning their exit. The final line “It comes over me,” opens the emotional floodgates of pre-chorus — “I’m missing you / And all the things we used to do” — and the rest of the song.
Chorus: Haunted by the Highs of Rose-Tinted Memories
The chorus transports us into the relationship, and paints a different setting filled with happy memories — MDMA in the back garden, kissing for hours, the “best cigarette,” days in Indio (the home of the Coachella Music Festival). But reality creeps into the memories.
“I remember saying then, “This is the best cigarette of my life,”
Well, I want you just like that
[…]
I didn’t know then that you’d never be enough, oh
Since I was seventeen, I gave you everything
Now we wake from a dream, well, baby, what was that?”
It’s a more complicated picture of love lost than the simple grief of the first verse — as if the narrator is acknowledging that she’s viewing the broken relationship through rose-tinted glasses.
The perfect cigarette is the first clue, especially when Lorde sings, “I want you just like that” — a clear message that she wants her former partner only when the relationship is perfect, just like that cigarette. She’s longing for the good days but doesn’t wish to relive the less-perfect times. Later, she admits this: “I didn’t know then that you’d never be enough” — a sentiment seemingly mirrored in her partner — she sings “I gave you everything,” but the partner doesn’t seem any happier. The final line seems to suggest that the happy moments overshadowed the reality of the relationship, and that waking from those rose-tinted memories, the narrator is left with the question: “what was that?” Was it love, joint delusion, or just a flash in the pan? The post-chorus repeats this sentiment but offers no answer.
Verse 2: Lingering Emotions
With the second verse, we’re back in the all-consuming grief of the narrator, as she's haunted by memories of their relationship.
“Do you know you’re still with me
When I’m out with my friends?”
Again, the relationship takes on an outsized importance, lingering in every facet of the narrator’s life, even when she’s out with friends.
“You had to know this was happening
You weren’t feeling my heat”
These lines sound almost bitter, as if the narrator is accusing their ex of leading her on, drawing out the relationship when they already knew it was ending. It’s a moment of confusion, how the two could be on such different pages — one feeling heat the other immune to it — and again raises the question “what was that?” since the relationship obviously meant different things to each of them.
“When I’m in the blue light, down at Baby’s All Right
I face reality”
Baby’s All Right, a popular Brooklyn venue, keeps the song rooted in night-life, and reinforces the narrator’s detachment — even the neon lights can’t distract her, she’s forced to face reality and it’s heartbreaking.
Pre-Chorus 2: Coping With the Aftermath
“I try (I try), to let (To let)
Whatever has to pass through me pass through
But this is staying a while, I know
It might not let me go”
In a moment of clarity, the narrator intellectualizes her suffering, acknowledging that she has to let the feelings wash over her before she can be truly free, but there’s a lingering worry that she'll never get to that point. The grief feels drowning, threatening to pull the narrator under at any moment.
Chorus Reprise and Post-Chorus: Searching For Closure
In the closing moments, Lorde reexamines the nostalgic highs and uncertain lows of the relationship. It’s not until the final post-chorus that a fragile sense of relief appears.
“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?”
There’s no clear answer, but as Lorde croons “I can make it alright,” we’re offered a quiet relief — the understanding that if no answer comes, none is needed. In the beginning the narrator desperately wanted clarity, but now we’re left with the peace of not knowing and not needing to know. Where the question “what was that?” once seemed all-consuming, now it seems rhetorical.
Conclusion: Peace In Unanswered Questions
“What Was That” captures the emotional whiplash of trying to make sense of love once it’s over. It’s messy, unresolved, and unclear where the blame lies — with the outsized impact of rose-tinted memories and the confusion of the narrator as she both takes on guilt and lays blame on the partner. The song doesn’t offer answers, but there is a sense of closure. The question that’s so haunting at the beginning — “what was that?” — seems to fade toward the end. The truth of the relationship doesn’t seem as important as the reality of this moment, the blue light, and feeling alright — even if it’s forced.
