Lorde 'Team': 16-Year-Old NZ Pop Star Finally Drops Something Worthy Of Attention With 'Royals' Follow-Up

By Alex Galbraith, Mstars Reporter | Sep 13, 2013 09:28 AM EDT

New Zealand wunderkind Lorde has just released the follow-up to her smash hit "Royals." The Pure Heroine track "Team" loses the insufferable posing of the first song for a more straightforward pop track that sounds bigger, more complex and (quite frankly) more worthy of mainstream radio play.

Where "Royals" sounded like Karmin's schtick channelled through a bedroom imitation of Regina Spektor, "Team" sounds like Lorde making her own way. There's still a bit of that winking pop deconstructionism ("I'm kind of tired of being told to throw my hands up in the air- so there") when the "We're on each other's team" hook rolls around, it's easy to see why so many folks are impressed by the 16-year-old chanteuse.

The track gives me hope that unlike that other materialism-eschewing pop hitmaker (*cough* Macklemore *cough*), Lorde may just have some talent underneath all those gimmicks.

Check out the track here.

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