Lorde’s Not Afraid to Change Things Up on ‘Virgin,’ her Phenomenal Fourth Album

When you’ve gone through enough changes, sometimes you feel like you just need to start over from scratch. That’s what Lorde’s doing on her new album, Virgin. Over the 12 years since the New Zealand-based singer released her debut album, Pure Heroine, Lorde’s undergone a tremendous amount of changes musically. From anti-materialism electro pop on her debut, to the dark and dramatic Melodrama, to the California folk-laden Solar Power, released in 2021, Lorde’s sound continues to shift and evolve. But she’s also had some personal changes, too.

After a breakup, fighting through an eating disorder and further health issues, and exploring gender fluidity, Lorde seems poised to say that she’s still figuring herself out, and is starting over. 

She addresses that feeling in the album’s first song, and third single, “Hammer,” in which she sings “I might have been born again, I’m ready to feel like I don’t have thе answers.”

Virgin marks Lorde’s first studio album in four years, since the release of 2021’s Solar Power, which marked a drastic difference tonally, sonically, and production-wise from her previous work. In between releases, fans rarely hear a peep from Lorde. That’s gotta be so healthy, but it also helps make each release feel like a mega-event. Virgin is no different. This album was so hyped up, and it very much lived up to that hype.

One of the absolute standouts on the album is “Man of the Year,” the second single off of Virgin. Throughout the song, Lorde explores gender identity and fluidity. It’s a beautiful song that continues to build off of itself, which starts with just the simple pluck of a bass string, and grows into a whole symphony of activity by the end of the song’s three-minute run.

In the song, Lorde also sings “You met me at a really strange time in my life,” a line that “Fight Club” fans could easily recognize. The movie (and the book that the movie is based on, of course) is about a man with an alter ego, and a side he didn’t even realize that he had, just as Lorde is exploring a different side to herself throughout this album. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Lorde said that she’s a woman, “except for the days that [she’s] a man.” 

“Now I go ’bout my day, riding it like a wave, playing it any way I want,” Lorde sings on the track.

It’s an open and honest song, but instead of being doubtful about expressing herself, or feeling like “a little much,” like on 2017’s “Liability,” on the singer’s second album Melodrama, Lorde expresses a newfound confidence and bravery in her ability to be open.

Lorde’s open about her family throughout the album, especially in one of its highlights—”Favourite Daughter.” The song is about the always complex mother-daughter relationships, and the effort that some children put in to be perfect in the eyes of their parents.

In the chorus of the song, Lorde sings “Breaking my back just to be your favorite daughter,” and later “Panic attack just to be your favorite daughter.”

“What Was That,” the first single off of Virgin, serves as the album’s pop backbone. It’s an introspective and nostalgic look for the singer, backed by an infectious synth-pop beat once the song picks up. It’s like a matured version of 2017’s “Green Light,”—less anthemic, less energetic, but more introspective and really sticks with you after listening to it.

One of the album’s most moving songs is “Clearblue,” which chronicles an unplanned pregnancy, and hints at the fears of passing down inherited trauma, as Lorde sings “There’s broken blood in me, it passed through my mother from her mother down to me.”

It’s not just the subject matter that makes the track stand out, but the instrumentation of voices on it can only be described as beautiful. 

Although a lot of this album is about reinvention and starting over, a lot of it does feel familiar. “Hammer” and “Broken Glass” could be a track off of Melodrama, and both albums are heavy on synthesizers in their sound. Thematically, “If She Could See Me Now” reminds me so much of “Secrets From a Girl (Who’s Seen It All),” off of Solar Power. Both songs offer introspection and self-reflection after getting older, and wiser.

Something that’s carried through all of Lorde’s work is the singer’s emotional depth, and vulnerability. 

Because Lorde started out as a teenager, with her first breakout single “Royals” releasing while the singer was 16, we’ve been able to watch the singer change and evolve in real time. Not just musically, or stylistically, but as a person—she’s figuring out her influences, creativity, and how to grow and display confidence. This is Lorde’s most confident output yet, and it’s well-deserved.

Lorde’s not the first pop star to reinvent themselves, but she is one of the few to address it and acknowledge that she’s still figuring things out. Even if Virgin is acknowledging that she’s still a work in progress, the album isn’t. It’s a tremendous output from a pop star that is unafraid to grow and change, and let us all peek behind the curtain as that happens.