When Lorde released “Stoned at the Nail Salon,†the second single off her upcoming album Solar Power, some fans noted that the ballad sounded very similar to “Wild at Heart,†a song off Lana Del Rey’s 2021 album Chemtrails at the Country Club. Both Lorde and Del Rey worked with super-producer Jack Antonoff on the songs, and the fans were getting at a larger criticism of Antonoff’s work: That he dulls or stunts the artists he works with, who tend to be young women, and that the problem has only gotten worse as his profile has grown. Now, speaking with the New York Times, Lorde is defending her work with Antonoff. “I haven’t made a Jack Antonoff record,†Lorde said. “I’ve made a Lorde record and he’s helped me make it and very much deferred to me on production and arrangement. Jack would agree with this. To give him that amount of credit is frankly insulting.â€
While not specifically addressing “Stoned at the Nail Salon,†Lorde — who also serves as producer on Solar Power, out August 20 — went on to acknowledge the touches of Antonoff’s production that can appear across the array of musicians he works with, from Taylor Swift to St. Vincent. “Some of those things I really love and some of them I don’t like,†she said. “And I beat them out of the work that we do together.†Lorde, who began working with Antonoff on her 2017 album Melodrama (which she also co-produced), credited the pair’s close relationship with how they’re able to work together while hitting back at “sexist†fan speculation that the pair are dating. “No one who’s in a job that isn’t my job has a relationship like the one I have with Jack,†she added. “He’s like a partner to me. We’re in a relationship. It’s not a romantic relationship, but we’ve been in it for seven years, and it’s a really unique thing, so I don’t begrudge people maybe not being able to understand it.â€