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  • Lorde surveys life on the fringes of society in her new video for song 'Team.' (Photo: Getty)

    Lorde surveys life on the fringes of society in her new video for song ‘Team.’ (Photo: Getty)

    Lorde, the latest teen pop sensation from New Zealand, continues to fashion herself as a working class hero in her latest video for her song “Team,” about a close-knit group of kids living on the decaying fringes of a major industrial city.

    The video is equal parts post-apocalyptic vision and modern-day teen alienation.

    It was filmed in a dilapidated area of Red Hook in Brooklyn, marked by abandoned factories and trash-strewn streets. Her cadre of followers eke out a living and act out their ritualistic bonding by jousting on motorcycles.

    Lorde, real name Ella Yelich-O’Connor, appears dressed in black and white, wearing tight corn rows and gothic black lipstick, an Ozymandias, queen of all she sees.

    The message seems to be that even at the lowest rungs of society there is social cohesiveness because everyone supports each other. Lorde sings:

    “We live in cities you’ll never see on screen
    Not very pretty, but we sure know how to run things
    Living in ruins of the palace within my dreams
    And you know, we’re on each other’s team.”

    Lorde explained the song this way on her Facebook page: “‘[It’s] 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.”

    “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. 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,” she wrote.

    Check out the video below, let us know your thoughts and follow theImproper on Twitter for the latest music news.