"Sober" is the second promotional single from Lorde's new album Melodrama. She started writing it in 2016 reportedly.
She revealed this song convinced her she was on to something good, and decided she wanted to make the whole album a concept album about a "one house party." This is apparently Lorde's favorite track from the album.
8 days before the release of Melodrama, Lorde released "Sober" on Spotify in NZ. She also revealed she would release it as a promotional single in honor of the Melodrama World Tour being announced.
On her Twitter, Lorde spoke about the song, saying:
"i wanna tell you about sober, so the first inklings of sober came to me in the back of an uber, and then properly at jack and lena's kitchen table. i BOLTED to the studio. i'll never forget writing the first demo it was like a trance i guided jack to the chords almost wordlessly with my hands on his shoulders. it was this really intense booming slow synth thing with a drum outro for ages then malay came thru on my birthday & cracked the code on it. came up with the "midnight, lose my mind" pitched sample on a sinfully hot day in palm springs and also started sober II that day as well. but this song was so important to me because it felt like pop music i hadn't heard before, this sprawling brass & strange vocal syncopation & i think we expressed the emotions so purely- it's leaning & drawling, juvenile & triumphant - impressing someone then embarrassing urself & that late-saturday-night declaration "WE PRETEND THAT WE JUST DON'T CARE / BUT WE CARE" tasted as fresh & new in my mouth as ice water."
