Virgin - Lorde: Review
Review by Lavender:
Lorde has developed into one of the most beloved pop stars of the past 15 years. Her 2013 debut album Pure Heroine was packed full of stark, youthful pop songs like the landscape-altering mega-hit "Royals" and the critically-acclaimed masterpiece "Ribs." She doubled down on that impressive debut with 2017's Melodrama, which, when all is said and done, stood as one of the best pop albums of the entire decade. But her first outing of the 2020s Solar Power was nowhere near as interesting sonically or thematically. After seemingly undergoing quite a lot of maturity as a songwriter in just 4 years, Lorde returned with an album that feels like a true grown-up version of her beloved sound and style.
Virgin's lead single is probably my least favorite of the three, and I still think it's great, how's that for a start? Despite some silly lyrics, “What Was That” is genuinely propulsive, especially on the hook, where it really does feel like extracting a life-changing moment out of a mundane experience. The third single “Hammer” starts the whole record off with a bed of gentle synths and opening lyrics I am absolutely OBSESSED with. It sets up just how personal and hyper-literal the album will be as Lorde confronts one insecurity after another and derives meaning from even the most routine happenings throughout.
But it's the third single, “Man Of The Year,” that stopped me in my tracks. I still think it's the album's masterpiece. It finds the perfect balance of hovering and quivering on the edge through the song's quieter first half, all so it can build up a tension that erupts in a truly stunning moment. That combined with the emotional weight of Lorde confronting self-love so she can feel lovable to anyone else, while also flirting with gender themes in a way that's obvious without actually saying anything precise, makes for an utterly remarkable song. Though the album largely shifts to something more upbeat after this, it does eventually loop back around to the gentle but beautiful closer “David,” ending the album on a great note.
That shift in energy is helmed by one of my favorite deep cuts, “Favorite Daughter.” It features a muttering electronic beat, something that actually comes up a lot on the record, usually to very good results. But the real kicker is the song's absolutely perfect bridge, which is one of my favorite points on the entire record. That same infectiousness is present on “Broken Glass.” The track introduces itself with a killer beat and stacks several irresistible refrains on top of it, with several standout lyrics to go with it, making for a huge highlight.
The peak of Lorde's own confidence and swagger comes on “If She Could See Me Now.” Fittingly, the song matches her attitude with a killer beat that starts out on the starker side before picking the perfect moment to grow into its full array of Instrumentation. My very favorite deep cut might be “GRWM,” whose very title is a subversion of expectations. I love how bitter Lorde sounds at points about the platonic ideal of a grown woman and how her own journey to find it sculpted the different kind of person she became. It's a crucial thematic point on the record and a very enjoyable one at that.
I think I've made it pretty clear that I like this record quite a bit, but as you'd expect, it isn't perfect. “Shapeshifter” is the biggest problem as the album's weakest song and one that breaks up an otherwise great opening run. It has several moments that stand out in all the wrong ways from a narrator voice on the second verse that makes me laugh out loud every time in a way that's clearly not intentional, to the hyper-literal tone that clashes hard with the elegant looping strings. It's just a very confusing moment on the album that I don't really care for. “Current Affairs” is actually really funny, with Lorde showing off her wit through the theme of blaming everything on current affairs. Unfortunately, it's another moment where the sonic and compositional elements shoot themselves in the foot for seemingly no reason, with really awkward, drawn-out syllables and clunky transitions that make it difficult to listen to.
Despite a relatively unloved third album in Solar Power, expectations remained sky high for Lorde, and I think Virgin did an admirable job at living up to them. Though it may not land as an instant and timeless pop classic in the same way her first two albums did, it's nonetheless one of the best pop records of this year and an extremely worthwhile indulgence into the woman (or at least sometimes a woman) behind the pop icon. Packed full of subtle electronic beats and meaningful introspection, Lorde created a playground for herself to take fans into a reimagined version of her own world, as vulnerable as ever but with a maturity that feels considered and well-earned. 8/10
