This Week’s Say

Lorde’s ‘Virgin’ is a triumph, I am certain. My certainty rests on the nostalgia I was overcome with during my first listen. The opening track Hammer transcends you into the world of Ella Yelich-O’Connor (Lorde’s birth name, please keep up). Through the ethereal backing vocals, we are transported through a mental Coraline-esque tunnel, letting the soft techno sounds wrap around our minds.

Lottie’s Lyric: “When you’re holding a hammer, everything looks like a nail”

Through Melodrama reminiscent lyrics and poppy yet depressing lyrics, Virgin’s songs explore confusing situationships, specifically in What Was That and Man of the Year. Nothing brings us together like nostalgia can, and with lyrics like “I remember saying then, this is the best cigarette of my life, well I want you just like that”, we remember the same grungy edge of Homemade Dynamite’s beat and lyrics and feel like we are home again. And by we, I mean myself and any other 17-year-olds who, at the time, thought they were the only ones who knew that song.

Shapeshifter is one of the songs from Virgin I’ve noticed trending on TikTok, which seems innocent. But when you’re paying attention to the lyrics, you can’t help but listen to it in the context of your teenage self. Shapeshifting into her younger self in this track, Lorde tries to convince herself that she can keep things surface-level rather than personal, so she remains unaffected by consequences. But as a musician, artist and emoter by nature, who has spent many years in the music industry, she’s probably been trying to protect herself for so long, but she’s now wanting to fall into her fate as a stronger version of herself.

Lottie’s Lyric: “I don’t sleep, no I don’t dream at all. I give nothing personal so I’m not affected”

The fourth track on this album, Favourite Daughter, may as well be called “Eldest Daughters: Warning This Hurts” because, and to quote the woman herself, what was that? As to not give too much away about my childhood emotional baggage, here are my quick notes: this is for 15-year-old Charlotte, who had big dreams and told no one. Deathly afraid of judgement and failure. Not realising both of those things will push her to where she’s going.

Lottie’s Lyric: “Why did no one listen when you hit the notes from your heart?”

Current Affairs questions when real accountability might come into play, while Clearblue is arguably the most vulnerable song on the album. Now, get out your black eyeliner; now is not a time to be scarce with it, it’s GRWM time. This song feels like the push and pull that comes with being in your twenties; wanting to act mature, dress young, and all the while having an evolving definition of adulthood.

To upbeat sounds of Broken Glass momentarily take us out of our depression and encourage us to gain a new perspective on things rather than fix a certain meaning to a situation: it’s broken glass, if you don’t look back, you won’t see the reflection. Just move forward. 

Lottie’s Lyric: “It might be months of bad luck, but what if it’s just broken glass?”

Okay, open that weird little Coraline door again, because the synths in this next song make me want to exclusively listen to this song lying on a trampoline in the dark, staring up at the sky after too many Vodka Cruisers at a party in 2018. From what I deemed the “bad bitch anthem of the album”, according to my original listening notes, If She Could See Me Now is a reminder to live and feel our emotions with the tools we have gathered (see: Hammer and Broken Glass) before intellectualising these feelings. The meticulous unpacking and learning of lessons can still happen once you have let yourself feel what it needs to feel.

Lottie’s Lyric: “Yesterday I lifted your body weight”

Closing arguments of the album: David. We return to the choppy, dynamic synths and hear Lorde reminding herself that after all these years, she hasn’t forgotten that she is her own person, faces the hard questions and also continues to ask even harder ones; “Am I ever going to love again?”. A simple enough question, which is enough to send me back to the first time I heard Liability and it’s scathing lyrics of pondering if one will ever love again. Really gets the brain ticking over. 

To think this album is only 34 minutes in total is straight-up ridiculous. Each song is so full, fleshed out and complete. To have 34 minutes of the truest version of Lorde we have seen while still feeling like the Lorde we all fell in love with over a decade ago is lightning in a bottle. And of course, artists referencing their previous (outstanding at that) work always gives me a kick too. 

Lottie’s Lyric: “Pure heroine mistaken for featherweight”. 

Thank you, Ella.