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"The Love Club" is a song from Lorde's debut EP The Love Club EP and debut studio album Pure Heroine (extended only).
Background[]
Writing and composition[]
In 2012, The Love Club EP was made freely available on SoundCloud. Later in March 2013, the EP was released for digital sales on iTunes Stores through Universal Music Group. The EP featured songs solely written by Lorde (credited under her birth-name Ella Yelich-O'Connor) and Joel Little and produced by Little, including "The Love Club". To promote the EP, Lorde held a concert at Le Poisson Rouge in New York and performed the song among other tracks from The Love Club EP on 6 August 2013, becoming her first US show. On 9 August 2013, Lorde performed "The Love Club" and "Royals" on KCRW radio station.
"The Love Club" is a electropop song. It addresses the befriending of "a bad crowd." Lorde explained the song's lyrical meaning to New York magazine, "'The Love Club' is about an experience I had about a year ago where I met all these new friends and I fell in with them. It happened overnight and I couldn't think of anything but our friends and our situation. Then I started to maybe realise that group wasn't so good for me, and that my old friends and my family are the people I should be with. It's about being drawn into this crazy world, and you’re all in love".
Reception[]
Critical Reception[]
Upon its release, "The Love Club" received mainly positive reviews from music critics. Writing for The New Zealand Herald, Chris Schulz wrote that the song was "the start of something very special indeed." James Christopher Monger from AllMusic and The Nelson Mail writer Nick Ward picked it as one of the EP's standout tracks, alongside "Royals". Todd Luling from The Huffington Post labelled the song "a perfect pop song". Nick Manson from mX labelled "The Love Club" a "light-hearted" track.
Chart Performance[]
In New Zealand, the song peaked at number three on the New Zealand Artists Singles Chart on 25 March 2013, and at number seventeen on the New Zealand Singles Chart on 10 June 2013. It was eventually certified Gold by Recorded Music NZ for sales of 7,500 copies there.
In the United States, "The Love Club" peaked at number 18 on the Hot Rock Songs chart, published by Billboard magazine. The song was listed at number 60 on the 2013 year-end Hot Rock Songs chart. Moreover, it charted at number 20 on the US Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles. "The Love Club" was included in the album Songs for the Philippines, a charity album to support the people in the Philippines who suffered from Typhoon Haiyan (2013).
Lyrics[]
[Verse 1]
I'm in a clique but I want out
It's not the same as when I was punched
In the old days there was enough
The card games and ease with the bitter salt of blood
I was in but I want out
My mother's love is choking me
I'm sick of words that hang above my head
What about the kid? It's time the kid got free
[Hook]
Be a part of the love club
Everything will glow for you
Go get punched for the love club
For the love club
[Verse 2]
I joined the club and it's all on
There are fights for being my best friend
And the girls get their claws out
There's something about hanging out with the wicked kids
Take the pill, make it too ill
The other day I forgot my old address
I'm sitting pretty on the throne, there's nothing more I want
Except to be alone
[Hook]
Be a part of the love club
Everything will glow for you
Go get punched for the love club
For the love club
[Bridge]
Your clothes are soaked and you don't know where to go
So drop your chin and take yourself back home
And roll out your maps and papers
Find out your hiding places again
The only problem that I got with the club
Is how you're severed from the people who watched you grow up
When you're a member, go on your great adventure again
And we'll be waiting at the end
[Hook]
Be a part of the love club
Everything will glow for you
Go get punched for the love club
For the love club