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Coachella Day 2: Lorde & Pharrell score

The two pop stars, who couldn’t be more different, drew two of the biggest crowds at the festival

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Apart from their recent Grammy Award victories, there could hardly be two more dissimilar pop stars than Lorde and Pharrell Williams, who drew two of the largest crowds of the weekend to their respective Saturday night performances at the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival.

Both appeared on the Outdoor Theatre Stage, undaunted by strong winds and a night air that seemed to grow colder by the minute. And both drew such overflowing audiences that it was a mystery why they weren't performing on the festival's considerably larger Coachella Stage.

At 17, Lorde (real name: Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O’Connor) rose to international stardom last year with her hit single "Royals." A stunning song that is as moody and understated musically as it is incisive and insightful lyrically, it delivers a haunting critique of blind consumerism and celebrity worship.

"Royals" is a highlight, but not the only one, on her superb debut album, "Pure Heroine." It's an ambitious and richly satisfying work that is sometimes sweet, sometimes lacerating, sometimes both at the same time. Lorde's precocious abilities and distinctive artistic vision at times recall English music legend Kate Bush, who was herself a teenager when she became a star in the 1970s.

View the photo gallery: Coachella Day Two

Williams, 41, has spent nearly half his life as a producer, songwriter, band member and solo artist. He seems to have a golden touch, whether working in hip-hop, R&B, pop or crafting an amalgam of the three. As half of the production team known as The Neptunes, he has collaborated with everyone from Prince and Backstreet Boys to Britney Spears and Jay-Z. More recently, he played a key role on two of the biggest hits of this decade, Daft Punk's "Get Lucky" and Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines."

Williams included both songs in his propulsive show Saturday. He sounded sleek and polished whether performing on his own or in tandem with an array of guest artists who, together, represent a micro Who's Who of pop music. On Saturday, they included Snoop Dogg, Diplo, Busta Rhymes, Gwen Stefani and more.

Yet, while Williams was happy to share the vocal spotlight on such songs as "Hollaback Girl" (with Stefani) and "Drop it Like It's Hot" (with Snoop Dogg), he was a charismatic ringmaster throughout. His own songs, such as the Oscar-nominated "Happy" (from "Despicable Me"), are buoyant and infectious, if lacking in much depth beneath their sleek, shiny surface.

Deftly drawing from funk, disco and other vintage and more recent pop styles, he delivers a good time, nearly all the time, with music that is upbeat and unfashionably optimistic in an era of constant irony and cynicism. The fact that he opened his 18-song concert with "Lose Yourself to Dance" (from his recent Grammy Award-winning album collaboration with Daft Punk) and closed it with "Happy" neatly summarized his performance -- and his broad appeal as a leading confectioner of instantly catchy music that is as direct and appealing as it is largely free of nuance or surprise.

Lorde, conversely, is all about understatement and nuance. Her songs set a mood, often dark and quietly beguiling, sometimes playful, as she explores the challenges of being a thoughtful teenager in a world where being thoughtful (and being able to articulate it with wit and clarity) is a rare quality for many adults with much more life experience.

Her Coachella performance was as admirable for what it lacked as for what it included. There was no showboating, no “look-at-me” displays of vocal virtuosity (whether real or imagined), and no hyperactive stage moves. Her alternately husky and velvety singing served the music very well, never detracting from her carefully considered lyrics.

Lorde sang with quiet confidence and precision throughout her set, which opened with two very brief songs, “Glory and Gore” and “Biting Down.” Even when she utilized a thumping electronic beat at times, her tempos remained as stately as her singing.

The enormous audience seemed divided between those who connected deeply with all her songs and those who chatted loudly and only wanted to hear “Royals.” To her credit, she didn’t save her Grammy Award-winning hit until the end of her set.

Alas, droves of people turned around and left as soon as she finished “Royals,” even though she still had several more songs up her sleeve. Moreover, as good as her performance of “Royals” sounded, with its spare but elegant delivery and tart observations, “Team,” her next number, was perhaps even more compelling. So was her third selection, “Tennis,” which built to a slow, dramatic climax that benefited from the sensitive electronic textures provided by her two accompanists.

“This is a really big moment for us,” Lorde told the cheering audience during her extended spoken introduction to “Royals.”

“… holy (expletive), this is Coachella! … we are so lucky to be here.”

She spoke for several more minutes, sounding earnest and genuinely grateful. While Lorde is clearly still a work-in-progress whose music and stage craft will grow with time, her impressive Coachella performance left no doubt about her future potential for creative growth. If she’s this accomplished now, one can only wonder how she’ll sound in a decade or two.

Coachella 2014

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