Reviewing “What Was That”, the chart-topping lead single from Lorde’s fourth album, Virgin, for The Independent back in April, Mark Beaumont noted that the sound was “an inch behind the times… relying heavily on the kind of snarly slogan hookline that Charli XCX owns now”. Both artists indeed spill confessional lines over semi-feral electro-pop hooks.
But Virgin isn’t a mere pale imitation. For where XCX’s Brat Summer’s vibe was ALL in the moment – sticky dance floors and cloakroom collapses – 28-year-old Ella Yelich-O'Connor is more about looking back and reaching forward. She’s grieving the highs (romantic and chemical) shared with her ex (music industry exec Justin Warren, 17 years her senior, with whom she was linked from 2016 until 2023) and looking forward to being “ready to feel I don’t have the answers”.
The tingly pulse of anticipation drives the opener “Hammer”. A twitchy synth throb lies low in the mix as Lorde rap-sings her acceptance of ambivalence. “Some days I’m a woman, some days I’m a man,” she declares as the track picks up pace. The mood is one of heel-sprung trainers on asphalt – alone in a city in the late night or early morning – no surprise to learn that the singer, whose last album, Solar Power (2021), was all stoner-pastoral-folk-daze, has relocated to New York.
In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, the New Zealand-born artist opened up about her struggles with an eating disorder, which she had been treating with therapy and hallucinogens. She also spoke about coming off birth control for the first time since she was 15, and feeling ecstatic at ovulating again before experiencing debilitating premenstrual mood swings, which led to her having an IUD fitted. Her desire to be open about all this “rebirth” and reconnection with her body (hence Virgin) is laid bare on the album art, which features an X-ray of her pelvis clearly showing the new device. She’s just as blunt in the lyrics for “Hammer”, which sees her asking if she’s in love or “just ovulating”.
The album picks up pace with the single “What Was That” (which features the catchiest melody on the record) and soft-firework-explodes into rave beats toward the end. Things grow murkier over the glitchy trap beats of “Shapeshifter”, slyly accessorised with low-sawed strings and moody piano as Lorde reflects on a past in which she’s been both “the prize” and “the ball and chain”. Now she just yearns “to fall”.
The sense of living, suspended on the brink of the kind of wild thrills she expressed on her triumphant second album, Melodrama, is gracefully captured on the lo-fi, bass’n’vocal of “Man of the Year” and the spaciously vocodered chant of “Clearblue”, on which she describes the moment “after the ecstasy, testing for pregnancy”. As through much of the record, the singer’s confiding voice is in the front of the mix, low, a little growly and raw, as though her lips are grazing your earlobes.
The catch in her throat and the bluntness of her delivery has inspired a generation of female artists – from Olivia Rodrigo to Gracie Abrams – and she’s still got that knack of making you feel like a confidante. The more “sung” moments occur in the background, like the heartbeat behind the motion. The slow-motion, self-cheerleading of “GRWM” sees her free associating off “wide hips/ soft hips… my mama’s trauma”. If she had pom poms, they’d be black.
It’s a shame that the crepuscular propulsion of mood isn’t often matched by melody. The tracks stack up their step count without sticking too deeply. “Broken Glass” has a sweetly sung hook, though, and the singer’s desire to “punch the mirror” to make herself see sense will strike chords with anybody who has battled body dysmorphia. Virgin fades out on a haze of dawn synths with “David”, on which Lorde finds her voice again. “Why do we run to the ones we do?” she asks. “I don’t belong to anyone... oooh!” The electricity distorts behind the realisation, ensuring you feel the enormity of the lonely charge. Virgin doesn’t find Lorde back in her finest, most exhilarating form. But it’s a record that sees her heading in that direction.
