Lorde gets all "Lord of the Flies" — get it? — in her new video for bonafide Pure Heroine hit, "Team," depicting a kind of broken Neverland where teens exist outside of societal norms and even those with acne can be in with the in crowd.
Lorde took to Facebook before dropping the video Tuesday (December 3) to describe the idea behind the vid. According to her post, the mini-movie was "borne from a dream I had a few months ago about teenagers in their own world, a world with hierarchies and initiations, where the boy who was second in command had acne on his face, and so did the girl who was queen."
Lorde plays the aforementioned queen in the Young Replicant-directed video -- although we couldn't spot any acne -- decked out in corn rows and a strange robe, holding court in a kind of steam room replete with tropical flowers.
Filmed in the waterside Brooklyn neighborhood of Red Hook, the video opens on a boy -- a sack over his head -- being transported to a decaying community of old factories. The landscape matches up perfectly with the lyrics of Lorde's anti-consumerist jam: "Living in ruins of the palace within my dreams
And you know, we're on each other's team."
Her insistence during an accompanying Twitter Q&A that actors be diverse -- and that their faces be spotted -- also comes from the lyrical content, specifically the line: "Now bring my boys in/ Their skin in craters like the moon."
@alana_dp probably the diversity of the casting! it was important to me that we cast real people w real faces. holla acne!— Lorde (@lordemusic) December 3, 2013
The boy is quickly assimilated into the society of lost children, and is made to partake in what looks to be a test involving motorbikes. It's uncertain what the aim of the test is, however, as he tumbles off the bike and comes up bleeding, a smile on his face.
"I dreamt about this world being so different to anything anyone had ever seen, a dark world full of tropical plants and ruins and sweat," Lorde said of the video. "And of this world, I dreamt about tests that didn't need to be passed in order to be allowed in: sometimes the person who loses is stronger."
We're guessing no one gets picked last on Lorde's team -- even the crater-faced members.