Stop the melodramatic, sad-synth indie pop presses, everyone! Lorde is finally back. After a four-year absence, the 28-year-old genre-bending phenom released her fourth studio album in June, an 11-track work entitled “Virgin.” Though brief at 34 minutes, “Virgin” establishes itself strongly in its limited time as a reclaiming of identity, rejecting the traditional notions of femininity, bodily autonomy and, as the title suggests, sexuality. While her previous albums embraced vibrant themes of adolescence and naiveté, Lorde matures with “Virgin,” marking the album as an exploration into a newly claimed womanhood, although I’d be remiss to neglect that she’s about seven years too late to the admittance of this maturity. Nevertheless, this album is a delightfully messy but compact collection of synth-heavy reflections, but a few tracks stand out from the rest.
“What Was That”
Initially released as a single, in the fourth track of “Virgin,” Lorde asks the quintessential and oft-pondered question following the demise of a relationship: What was that? The track is a powerfully melancholy anthem of the aftermath of heartbreak and the painful memories that follow. Although this is perhaps the most exhausted of the songs in regard to lyricism and content — a “Swiftian breakup song” as I like to call it — it still stands as deep and contemplative with electrifying backing instrumentals through hints of keyboard and bass guitar.
“Favourite Daughter”
Masquerading as an upbeat hit-single through fast-tempo synth and staccato drums, this track serves as a deeply vulnerable message to Lorde’s fans. The message? Even amongst her seemingly endless accolades and groundbreaking success, Lorde still craves your validation. In hushed but panicked vocals and heartfelt, emotional lyrics, the singer conveys her deep and desperate desire to remain relevant amongst a sea of female artists. It is not enough for Lorde to merely exist — she must be the “favourite” and will do anything to achieve it. This track is charmingly tragic and masterfully produced, and it’s sure to bring her the relevance she so desires.
“If She Could See Me Now”
Despite her desperate vulnerability in the aforementioned tracks, Lorde establishes that she remains a robust and formidable woman, not broken but strengthened by the trauma of her past. With an angry tone of voice and heavy instrumentals, Lorde narrates her journey to self-improvement, noting that, in spite of the pain, she wouldn’t change a single moment of her failures and fractured relationships. A stark contrast from the previous songs in “Virgin,” Lorde flawlessly pivots from vulnerability and turns purely to rage and retribution, allowing the album to function as something more than a mere story of a breakup.
“David”
Much of the album is of a breakup, but not in the colloquial sense. Lorde is certainly reflective and melancholic in “David,” — my personal favorite — but the track serves largely as her grand proclamation of her new and strictly self-owned identity. Alluding to Michaelangelo’s statue of David, Lorde indicates that her ex formed her into a person that she did not like or recognize, and she will never let that happen again. She repeats a powerful and evocative mantra in this track, “I don’t belong to anyone,” among an epilepsy-inducing crescendo of electronic synths, a perfectly fitting close to an album intent on the reframing and reclaiming of one’s self. “David” serves as both a reveal of a new persona and the dissociation of this persona from the scrutiny of the public eye.
Despite my evident enjoyment of Lorde’s “Virgin,” my dual position as fan and music critic remain at odds. Although 34 minutes does not seem nearly enough to satisfy the hungry, sad-girl music enthusiast in me after nearly four years of silence, the album works. It is neat, yet heavy and tragic, without venturing into the self-indulgence of the 60-plus minute runtimes that many artists delve into these days — sorry, Ethel Cain. In “Virgin,” Lorde masterfully proves that it’s not too late to reinvent yourself, and I can’t wait to hear what this new era brings for her.
