While it’s never been easier to get your music out there, there’s so much music out there that it’s overwhelming at times. (Most music reviewers I know have inboxes like warzones.) Lorde’s in a fortunate position because she’s established, and is likely to have a new release reviewed – and she’s also brilliant. So when the first single from this album ‘What Was That’ was released, the effect was to achieve what was hoped: this is the first taste, you’ll want to hear more. A ‘banger’ as infectious as ‘Royals’ or ‘Green Light,’ the forthcoming new album WOULD be great. And so it transpires.
While her last album Solar Power may have puzzled some listeners and reviewers, to this listener, it was an attempt to try something different, and overall a success. Stepping aside from Solar Power‘s rather more folky inclinations, Virgin may have more in common with her first two albums, but it’s worth stating that they all flow together as individual works and as a collective catalogue, and it’s quite possible that this may be her best album yet.
The opening three tracks are as strong an opening set as I’ve heard from any album this year, taking in ‘Hammer,’ the aforementioned ‘What Was That’ and ‘Shapeshifter’ the latter reminiscent of Burial with its dubstep feel. Overall this is a dance-pop record, but if you equate that with disposable and lightweight, then more fool you. She’s always been an introspective songwriter, and this may well be her most reflective record yet. What makes it special is that Lorde understands that dance doesn’t mean mindless and that reflective doesn’t mean acoustic.
She may have experienced heartbreak and health issues on the way to completing this album, as have been documented elsewhere, but she has drawn on her experiences to inform her songwriting. The title, by the way, is no flippant comment; she indicated in an interview that she associates the title as not being representative of sexual purity but to things that are essential and untainted.
So, yes, she’s pulled it off yet again. Repeated plays of this album go to show it to be a great album, and it’s hard to find much at fault here. We may have to wait four more years or more for more music, but on past timings, but Lorde still dazzles with each new release. Please don’t just cherry pick tracks, this really is good enough to be listened to as a whole, as it deserves.
Before he died David Bowie called Lorde the future of music and he was not wrong. See you again before the end of the decade, hopefully?
