Mood Ring

Mood Ring
General information
Release Date	August 17, 2021
Length	3:25
Label	Republic
Songwriter(s)	Lorde, Jack Antonoff
Producer(s)	Lorde, Jack Antonoff
Album	Solar Power
Singles chronology
Previous	"Stoned at the Nail Salon"
Current	"Mood Ring"
Next	"Fallen Fruit"
Solar Power chronology
"Leader of a New Regime"
"Mood Ring"
"Oceanic Feeling"
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