Virgin

Lorde

 Trevor Dunning

Lorde sings about growing up, being under pressure, and heartbreak on her most recent studio album “Melo-” no wait, wait, “Solar Pow-” no that’s not the one, “Virgin” yes, that’s the one. Lorde’s fourth studio album “Virgin” released on June 27th may have thematic similarities to her previous works, but those similarities are less redundancies and more so throughlines. Forever stuck in her 16 year old body, she has no choice but to sing about these afflictions. 

While her previous album “Solar Power” was reflective on her youth, keeping it at a distance, “Virgin” embraces it. The final song on “Solar Power” states the “cherry-black lipstick’s gathering dust in a drawer," on “Virgin” she remarks she was a “pure heroine mistaken for featherweight.” 

Listening to this album for the first time was underwhelming. I was at a record store, Rock N’ Roll Land” in Green Bay, Wisconsin for a pre-release listening party. I enjoyed the first half fine but the second half felt unbalanced, the sonic cohesion that Lorde had gone for felt broken in songs like “GRWM.” This didn’t change listening to the album on my own. But then I kept listening. And listening. And listening. With time my thoughts changed, seeing how these songs fit together. The ties between “Man of the Year,” “GRWM,” and “If She Could See Me Now.” How “Hammer” almost perfectly sets up the album, acting as an antithesis to her last album. How “David” works so well as an album closer, framing the work and continuing her now three album streak of ending her albums with a question. 

Lorde expands sonically and further scrutinizes her life on “Virgin.” She writes pungently and directly. “Virgin” may take a while to click, but when it does it hits hard.