Virgin by Lorde

Released on 6/27/25 by Universal Music New Zealand Limited
Main artists: Lorde
Genre: Pop

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On her fourth album, Lorde is pushing the envelope and taking more chances than just about anyone in her class. Those experiments don't always live up to her ambitions, but it's an interesting ride. Ditching the trendy touch of Jack Antonoff, who produced her last two albums and whose imprint is distinctly his own, she co-produced the record herself with Jim E-Stack (Caroline Polachek, Gracie Abrams). It's a symbolic shedding of the past that suits her seemingly restless but assured mood. In the most obvious ways, Virgin is a breakup record, but it doesn't feel sad so much as ready to reinvent on moody, emotive "Shapeshifter" and "Broken Glass," with its synth as bouncy as a trampoline; both of those songs evoke Robyn, and it suits Lorde well. "What Was That"—a chic electro-pop track with syncopated synth and a metallic quality to the vocal effects—finds her looking back but not mournful: "MDMA in the back garden, blow our pupils up/ We kissed for hours straight, well, baby, what was that?/ I remember saying then/ This is the best cigarette of my life." It's a song with so much anticipatory promise that never quite builds to a cohesive point. Ditto "Hammer," with its big, wild shaking rhythm that threatens a good time but doesn't really make it there. Soulful "Man of the Year" does, though. It starts off minimalist but not spare, with Lorde singing over warm bass from Dev Hynes, then a noisy buzz gives way to sharp drums; it's a momentary thrill that dissipates before you get too attached. Lorde has said the record is, in part, about figuring out her gender identity, which she has most recently classified as being "in the middle" (she still refers to herself as cis woman and uses she/her pronouns). That knowledge gives intriguing weight to lines like "You met me at a really strange time in my life/ Take my knife and I cut the cord/ My babe can't believe I've become someone else/ Someone more like myself," from "Man of the Year." (The album also seems to be a love letter to New York City, name-checking Prince Street, Canal Street and the Williamsburg venue Baby's All Right.) Good-weird "Favourite Daughter" travels to a jump-rope beat, throbbing "Current Affairs" is punctuated by ghostly moans and chords that strike out like laser beams, and "GRWM" is lush and soulful. Synth-heavy "If She Could See Me Now" samples Baby Bash and Frankie J's "Suga Suga." Most affecting are "Clearblue," as in the pregnancy test, with the unaccompanied, unnerving vocals stabbing over and over; and closer "David," which finds Lorde duetting with herself. © Shelly Ridenour/Qobuz

Virgin

Lorde

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Hammer Explicit

00:03:13

Chris Gehringer, MasteringEngineer - Will Quinnell, MasteringEngineer - Mark 'Spike' Stent, MixingEngineer - Jack Manning, AdditionalEngineer - Jim-E Stack, Producer, Engineer, Synthesizer, Keyboard, DrumProgrammer - James Harmon Stack, ComposerLyricist - Lorde, Producer, MainArtist - Buddy Ross, Piano, Synthesizer, Keyboard, AdditionalProducer - Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O'Connor, Vocalist, ComposerLyricist - Ian Gold, Engineer - Koby Berman, AdditionalEngineer