"Magnets" by Disclosure featuring Lorde // Song Review

- May 18, 2026

"Magnets" lives between two very distinct eras of Lorde's artistry and continues to stand out as a pivotal bridge between them. It introduced a more mature and darker electronic sound with pop roots, fully encompassing a very specific sense of grit and Hollywood glamour as well. There's vivid lyricism used throughout, with such an addicting hook. She sings about a forbidden love affair and the moral confliction, or lack thereof, that she's experiencing in the process. "Never really felt bad about it, as we drank deep from the lie, 'cause I felt melting magnets, babe the second I saw you through half-shut eyes".

Disclosure first collaborated with Lorde at the 2014 BRIT Awards on a live mashup of her song "Royals" with their song "White Noise". From there, they ended up reconnecting shortly after in London as the British electronic duo was finishing up their album, Caracal, making it a last minute addition to the track list.

"Magnets" ended up being what they called in an interview with Rolling Stone, "...the most equal collaboration on the record. You can really hear her sound - she has this sassy yet vulnerable thing." Originally titled "The Point Of No Return", "Magnets" ended up serving as the fourth single from their album and represents a seamless blend of both of their styles on one track. It also stands as one of Lorde's rare featuring appearances on another artist's track, and continues to be an underrated gem in her discography. She has traditionally taken four years between albums, so "Magnets" was released right at the midpoint between her 2013 debut Pure Heroine and her 2017 sophomore Melodrama.

In a 2015 interview with Entertainment Weekly, Howard Lawrence of Disclosure opened up about the origin of this song and early ideas they had for the direction of this track. "We always say, 'Has anything interesting happened to you?' With anybody we're working with, we always ask if anything mad has gone down in their life recently that we can write about. Or maybe I'll come in and have had something happen to me. It's very organic," he said. "When Lorde came in, I had this idea about writing about the phrase 'the point of no return,' ... We didn't know how we were going to use that, because that can be used in a lot of different ways - flying, or boating or whatever. Ella came up with the idea of using it in the sense of if you’re attracted to someone you shouldn't be for moral reasons, and then you tell them, then you've gone past the point of no return."

The production taps into a style that was very popular at the time, yet it has remained fresh and timeless in a way that much of that particular wave of electronic‑pop hasn't. In hindsight, it even feels like an early precursor to the evolved, more mature sound she would lean into more heavily with Melodrama. She was right on the cusp of creating one of the most pivotal releases of her career, and "Magnets" almost serves as a glimpse into the sonic palette and frame of mind she was beginning to step into for that larger project. The attitude she embodies through her writing and performance isn't too far off from where she went on her 2025 album Virgin as well, making it very ahead of its time in that regard.

"Smoke and sunset, off Mulholland, he was talking, I was wonderin' 'bout you and that girl, she your girlfriend? Face from heaven, bet the world she don't know," Lorde sings in the pre-chorus, followed by the core lyric of the entire song; "Pretty girls don't know the things that I know, walk my way, I'll share the things that she won't".