Lorde has made a surprise appearance on the Aotearoa Music Awards red carpet tonight after releasing a new music video this afternoon. Video / Carson Bluck
The first reviews for Lorde’s highly anticipated new album Virgin are in, with fans and critics alike commending the singer’s raw and emotive songwriting as a return to form.
But while the content of the album struck a chord, some listeners were left wanting more, owing to the album’s shortruntime, which clocks in at just 34 minutes.
Released at midnight June 27 (NZT), Virgin was described by Lorde as being about “transparency”, signalled on the album cover by an X-ray of the singer’s pelvis.
“The language is plain and unsentimental. The sounds are the same wherever possible,” she said in a previous email to fans.
“I am trying to see myself, all the way through. I was trying to make a document that reflected my femininity: raw, primal, innocent, elegant, openhearted, spiritual, masc.”
Many of the songs included in Virgin address topics like gender identity, body image, and mental health.
The Ringer’s Nora Princiotti said the album saw Lorde “back doing what she does best”, noting the album’s departure from her previous release Solar Power and that “Lorde sounds like Lorde again”.
Solar Power, while praised for its bright melodies and sense of fun and exploration of nature, was seen by some fans as not as introspective as the singer’s previous works.
“Lorde’s return to form includes a return to the city, to people (rather than nature), and to grappling with the feelings, devastations, and complicatedpleasures of modern life, which are the ones we need her for," Princiotti wrote.
Megan LaPierre of Exclaim! described it as a “rebirth” for the singer, calling it “fittingly messy, ugly, [and] full of sharp edges”.
Many listeners on Reddit agreed, saying it was a natural evolution of the singer’s highly acclaimed album Melodrama (2017).
“The production overall is so refreshing yet honouring her roots. I like how the sound turns from more Melodrama paying homage to more evolved new fresh sounds.”
The album cover for Lorde's upcoming fourth album Virgin.
Others, while impressed with the content and performance on the album, felt like Lorde had cut things a little bit short.
“I’m a bit underwhelmed by the album’s length, and a few tracks feel like they end just as they’re getting interesting,” one commenter wrote. “One or two could have gone on a bit longer and explored more ideas.”
Lorde is no stranger to short albums, with Virgin just two minutes shorter than her debut album Pure Heroine, and six minutes shorter than Melodrama.
Songs from Virgin have already seen widespread success online, with What Was That, Man of the Year, and Hammer picking up significant traction on TikTok and Instagram.
At the Christchurch event at Flying Nun Records, Lucy Donaldson told RNZ she liked the strong “community vibe” and described the album as “very sick, and very experimental”.
Mitchell Hageman joined the Herald’s entertainment and lifestyle team in 2024. He previously worked as a multimedia journalist for Hawke’s Bay Today.
