Lorde

• Pure Heroine [Lava/Republic, 2013] ★★
• Melodrama [Lava/Republic, 2017] B+
• Virgin [Universal New Zealand/Republic, 2025] A−

Consumer Guide Reviews:

Pure Heroine [Lava/Republic, 2013]
Her ambition's in the right place, but the reason she always co-writes is that 16-year-olds don't just crank out hits ("Royals," "Tennis") ★★

Melodrama [Lava/Republic, 2017]
Having achieved world renown as a 16-year-old innocent with a throaty voice, a head on her shoulders, and the nerve to dissent from a style of upward mobility invented by black people a pole away, she returns four years later as what else--a pop property with a sex life. Thus her chief musical collaborator is Taylor/Sia/Carly Rae helpmeet Jack Antonoff rather than New Zealand svengali Joel Little, and it's Antonoff plus the extra grain in her voice that make the difference here. For me, the most meaningful line is "Put my hands under your T-shirt," because it suggests someone who's thought about how this sex thing works. Deep, no. Real, in theory. Sex life, presumably. Pop property, absolutely. B+

Virgin [Universal New Zealand/Republic, 2025]
Well, she did call her debut album Pure Heroine, so why not something equally provocative? After all, Virgin has never been her label and if this New Zealand-spawned ingenue still has her hymen she sure doesn't act like it, impressive though it is that she remains some kind of ingenue at 29 and even more impressive that a fair helping of the erotic adventures and perplexities she references here seem to take place in lower Manhattan. What's love like for a teendream who's pushing 30? Well, "MDMA in the back garden, blow our pupils up/We kissed for hours straight." Or "I'll kick you out and pull you in." Or "Don't know if it's love or it's ovulation/When you're holding a hammer everything looks like a nail." A−