Claude says:Lorde and producer Joel Little knocked out all five tracks in three weeks at his Auckland studio when she was just 15 — she took inspiration from hip-hop artists but criticized luxury-rap clichés, he built the beats and synth lines around her words. You picked it up in August 2013, eight months after she self-released it on SoundCloud in November 2012, playing it heavily that month — particularly "Royals" but also "The Love Club" and "Biting Down." It's been quiet since then, though you've checked back in as recently as this spring.