In a long anticipated move, The singer Lorde made a spectacular return this month, releasing two songs from her upcoming album, Melodrama.

After years of silence, Lorde surprised the world first with a new upbeat song “Green Light” and later a ballad “Liability”.

Quiet since 2013’s Pure Heroin, Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O’Connor, the Kiwi artist better known by her stage name, Lorde, became famous when her song “Royals” shot to number one on the charts.

This month she revealed the reason for her departure for the first time in an interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe.

Having released her first album at the age of 16, she reflected on the impact the industry had on her as a child and said “It’s crazy when you are so young to be spending all your time in L.A. or New York.”

She explained that the experience really messed with her childhood. She explained that living on her own and experiencing her maturity influenced the creative choices she took with this album.

Despite, or likely as a result of, the four year hiatus, I could not be more excited about Lorde’s new work and the new direction she is taking. “Green Light”, released online March 2, seemed to symbolize a new leaf for the artist. With a new upbeat feel, Lorde appears to have shed her dreary feel from 2013.

Lorde tweeted after the release of Greenlight that “It’s very different, and kinda unexpected. It’s complex and funny and sad and joyous and it’ll make you dance.”  It’s a sentiment with which I wholeheartedly agree.

While many were disappointed with the artist’s original, 2013 sound, which felt slow, melancholy or simply sad, Green Light reminds us that four years changes a person a lot. Lorde is no longer 16, and her new maturity is evident in the sound and lyrics.

However, a week later Lorde seemed to return to the familiar, with a powerfully emotional ballad titled “Liability.” While this song is much slower than Greenlight, I still enjoyed  it as the artist reflects on recovering from heartbreak and rediscovering self-worth.

“Liability” presents so many of the fears about dating and relationships that listeners can relate to. No relationship lasts for ever, and in this impassioned piece, the listener experiences those second-hand feelings.

Lorde performed both of her new pieces on Saturday Night Live On March 11. She gave a stunning performance of “Liability.”  Accompanied only by a pianist, bathed in a spotlight, she performed an emotionally driven performance.

She wore what appeared to be a wedding dress, though she later explained what she was going for was “like an attic moth, no sparkle, swaddled and floating.”

After hearing this on SNL, I immediately bought it on itunes (the true mark of an amazing song), and it’s been playing more or less on repeat since.

Lorde explained that the song was inspired by Rihanna’s “Higher” but that it reflects her own life. “I think everyone knows what that’s like, to just feel like a liability.”

Because so many years have passed since her hit album Pure Heroine, many have wondered what she’s been up to.

She returned to New Zealand for a year, hung out with other celebrities, and has spent time exploring her new maturity, though she has stayed out of the public eye.

Last year, on her 20th birthday, she published a farewell letter to her teens.

She explained “Writing Pure Heroine was my way of enshrining our teenage glory… this one is about what comes next.” I am going to be waiting impatiently, counting down to June 14 to hear the rest.

The mature and sophisticated sound of Melodrama has me waiting eagerly to hear more. “Green Light” and “Liability” capture emotions that everybody can relate to on some level, and as a young adult, Lorde brings a new flavorful depth that was absent in her breathy slow work of her teen years.

This is one of only a few times I’ve ever bought an entire album, and certainly the first time I’ve preordered an album, and I think that serves as the most powerful testament to my high opinion of it.