Liability

With only Lorde's vocals and a piano forming the entire track, this mournful ballad finds the singer musing over why her relationships don't last: So they pull back, make other plans I understand, I'm a liability Get you wild, make you leave I'm a little much for ev Everyone Adele proved that a good heartbreak ballad with just voice and piano could be a winner on her 2011 track "Someone Like You."

Speaking with Zane Lowe on Beats 1, Lorde said: "I love the song so much and it feels so starkly truthful to me. And I think everyone knows what that's like, to just feel like a f---ing liability." "I'm really proud of this bit of songwriting," she continued. "I feel like I got somewhere they hadn't been before, which is always a nice feeling as a songwriter. It's interesting because I had this realization that because of my lifestyle and what I do for work there's going to be a point with every single person around me where I'm gonna be attacks on them in some way. If it is having to give up a little portion of their privacy or their life becoming more difficult or whatever. It was just this moment of sadness and I remember it so vividly."

The raw song was influenced by Rihanna's Anti track "Higher." Lorde explained: "I had a little cry [listening to it] and I was just like, 'It's always going to be this way, at some point with everyone it's going to be this way.' But the song kind of ended up turning into a bit of a protective talismans for me. I was like, you know what, I'm always gonna have myself so I have to really nurture this relationship and feel good about hanging out with myself and loving myself. And the tone of the melody, the way it kind of falls around, it's almost like it's kind of drunk or it sort of leans around, it's got this hip-hop cadence to it."