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Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Lorde's new album 'Virgin' is messy, emotional, and perfectly suited for the moment
Lorde released her fourth studio album, "Virgin," on Friday. The lyrics are frank and transparent, tackling knotty topics like sex, drugs, and eating disorders. The album's themes reflect a cultural shift away from polish and toward authenticity. For most of us, the first words we heard come out of Lorde's mouth took the shape of a disavowal: "I've never seen a diamond in the flesh." Lorde wrote "Royals" in 30 minutes when she was 15 years old. Growing up in New Zealand, disillusioned with materialism and flex culture — especially in the US — she proudly cast herself as a distant observer. She saw, she understood, but she didn't participate. This posture resonated with millions. "Royals" topped the Billboard Hot 100, where it remained for nine weeks. The smash hit was later certified diamond and won two Grammy Awards, including song of the year. Lorde has spent much of her career being portrayed as elusive and infallible by fans and media outlets alike. She tends to release an album every four years, and in between, she retreats from the spotlight. Even her stage name (Lorde's real name is Ella Yelich-O'Connor) evokes an office that's separate and superior. But a lot has changed since "Royals" was released as a single in 2013, just a few years after Instagram was launched. At the time, the platform was generally used for sharing one perfectly posed (and heavily filtered) photo at a time. Now, Instagram timelines look much less curated, with the savviest social media enthusiasts sharing unrefined "photo dumps" and spontaneous Instagram Stories instead. Pop culture has tilted dramatically in favor of relatability, transparency, and authenticity, too. Consumers no longer demand polish, poise, or aloof nonchalance from celebrities. "Mess is in," DJ Louie XIV, music critic and host of the Pop Pantheon podcast, recently told me while discussing the state of pop music. Several of last year's biggest hits corroborate his thesis: Taylor Swift embraced chaos and lust in writing "The Tortured Poets Department," and it became the best-selling album of her career. Chappell Roan canceled concerts, shared off-the-cuff videos on TikTok, scolded photographers on red carpets, and then won best new artist at the Grammys. Charli XCX's summer-defining album "Brat" — which the singer described as "my flaws, my fuck ups, my ego all rolled into one" — offers perhaps the clearest example of how this aesthetic has taken over. "Even Charli's outfits are tattered. She can't sing except in autotune. The whole album is about emotional messiness," Louie said. Charli XCX even recruited Lorde for a remix of the track "Girl, So Confusing," to hash out their long-simmering tension in real time. For the new wave of pop stars, he added, fans "seeing the seams is a plus." Lorde has surely noticed this trend because there's plenty of mess in her fourth album, "Virgin," released on Friday. Gone is the detached, enigmatic attitude from Lorde's debut album, when she insisted, "I'm kind of over getting told to throw my hands up in the air, so there." Now, she won't only throw her hands up, but she'll admit to getting them dirty, just like the rest of us. Lorde has said that "Virgin" represents a sort of rebirth — a newfound willingness to follow her gut and experience the world without a protective veil. The album's 11 tracks tackle an array of knotty topics, from enjoying unprotected sex ("Clearblue") and yearning for her mother's approval ("Favourite Daughter") to dabbling with drugs ("What Was That") and struggling with an eating disorder ("Broken Glass"). Lorde's honest lyricism is punctuated with palpable details: a discarded at-home pregnancy test, a dead uncle whom she resembles, blown-up pupils, and rotting teeth. These images make her life feel real and human. "Mystique is dead," she sings bluntly. This is not to say Lorde has never used personal details in her music. However, her last two albums, "Melodrama" and "Solar Power," offered confessions often cloaked in self-conscious theatrics, metaphor, or irony. When Lorde sang, "I can't feel a thing / I keep looking at my mood ring / Tell me how I'm feeling" in the 2021 single "Mood Ring," she was poking fun at the cult of wellness and the blonde caricature she adopted in the music video. By contrast, when she sings, "Take an aura picture, read it, and tell me who I am" in the new album's opening track, "Hammer," it's clear that she's disclosing a raw moment of self-doubt. (And her habit of taking aura photos in New York City's Chinatown is well-documented.) Lorde's "Virgin" co-producer, Jim-E Stack, told GQ how the duo intentionally added sounds that felt raw or jarring to reflect the author's mindset. With AI and modern technology, he pointed out, it's easy for artists to make perfect-sounding records with no hiccups or texture. And when it comes to art, easy usually translates to boring. "That is what's exciting in music right now, and where innovation is happening: People channeling their imperfections and saying stuff that's a little scary," Stack told the publication. "There [are] definitely songs on Ella's record that are like, 'Whoa, can you say this as a pop star?'" He was right to be concerned; a lesser artist wouldn't be able to pull it off. But Lorde can, she should — and she did. Read the original article on Business Insider
Business Insider
4 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Business Insider
Lorde's new album 'Virgin' is messy, emotional, and perfectly suited for the moment
For most of us, the first words we heard come out of Lorde's mouth took the shape of a disavowal: "I've never seen a diamond in the flesh." Lorde wrote "Royals" in 30 minutes when she was 15 years old. Growing up in New Zealand, disillusioned with materialism and flex culture — especially in the US — she proudly cast herself as a distant observer. She saw, she understood, but she didn't participate. This posture resonated with millions. "Royals" topped the Billboard Hot 100, where it remained for nine weeks. The smash hit was later certified diamond and won two Grammy Awards, including song of the year. Lorde has spent much of her career being portrayed as elusive and infallible by fans and media outlets alike. She tends to release an album every four years, and in between, she retreats from the spotlight. Even her stage name (Lorde's real name is Ella Yelich-O'Connor) evokes an office that's separate and superior. But a lot has changed since "Royals" was released as a single in 2013, just a few years after Instagram was launched. At the time, the platform was generally used for sharing one perfectly posed (and heavily filtered) photo at a time. Now, Instagram timelines look much less curated, with the savviest social media enthusiasts sharing unrefined "photo dumps" and spontaneous Instagram Stories instead. Pop culture has tilted dramatically in favor of relatability, transparency, and authenticity, too. Consumers no longer demand polish, poise, or aloof nonchalance from celebrities. "Mess is in," DJ Louie XIV, music critic and host of the Pop Pantheon podcast, recently told me while discussing the state of pop music. Several of last year's biggest hits corroborate his thesis: Taylor Swift embraced chaos and lust in writing " The Tortured Poets Department," and it became the best-selling album of her career. Chappell Roan canceled concerts, shared off-the-cuff videos on TikTok, scolded photographers on red carpets, and then won best new artist at the Grammys. Charli XCX's summer-defining album " Brat" — which the singer described as "my flaws, my fuck ups, my ego all rolled into one" — offers perhaps the clearest example of how this aesthetic has taken over. "Even Charli's outfits are tattered. She can't sing except in autotune. The whole album is about emotional messiness," Louie said. Charli XCX even recruited Lorde for a remix of the track "Girl, So Confusing," to hash out their long-simmering tension in real time. For the new wave of pop stars, he added, fans "seeing the seams is a plus." Lorde's journey from 'Royals' to 'Virgin' reflects a cultural shift Lorde has surely noticed this trend because there's plenty of mess in her fourth album, "Virgin," released on Friday. Gone is the detached, enigmatic attitude from Lorde's debut album, when she insisted, "I'm kind of over getting told to throw my hands up in the air, so there." Now, she won't only throw her hands up, but she'll admit to getting them dirty, just like the rest of us. Lorde has said that "Virgin" represents a sort of rebirth — a newfound willingness to follow her gut and experience the world without a protective veil. The album's 11 tracks tackle an array of knotty topics, from enjoying unprotected sex ("Clearblue") and yearning for her mother's approval ("Favourite Daughter") to dabbling with drugs ("What Was That") and struggling with an eating disorder ("Broken Glass"). Lorde's honest lyricism is punctuated with palpable details: a discarded at-home pregnancy test, a dead uncle whom she resembles, blown-up pupils, and rotting teeth. These images make her life feel real and human. "Mystique is dead," she sings bluntly. This is not to say Lorde has never used personal details in her music. However, her last two albums, " Melodrama" and " Solar Power," offered confessions often cloaked in self-conscious theatrics, metaphor, or irony. When Lorde sang, "I can't feel a thing / I keep looking at my mood ring / Tell me how I'm feeling" in the 2021 single "Mood Ring," she was poking fun at the cult of wellness and the blonde caricature she adopted in the music video. By contrast, when she sings, "Take an aura picture, read it, and tell me who I am" in the new album's opening track, "Hammer," it's clear that she's disclosing a raw moment of self-doubt. (And her habit of taking aura photos in New York City's Chinatown is well-documented.) Lorde's "Virgin" co-producer, Jim-E Stack, told GQ how the duo intentionally added sounds that felt raw or jarring to reflect the author's mindset. With AI and modern technology, he pointed out, it's easy for artists to make perfect-sounding records with no hiccups or texture. And when it comes to art, easy usually translates to boring. "That is what's exciting in music right now, and where innovation is happening: People channeling their imperfections and saying stuff that's a little scary," Stack told the publication. "There [are] definitely songs on Ella's record that are like, 'Whoa, can you say this as a pop star?'" He was right to be concerned; a lesser artist wouldn't be able to pull it off. But Lorde can, she should — and she did.
Scotsman
6 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
What time is Charli XCX at Glastonbury on TV?
Brat star Charli XCX's set at Glastonbury Festival will be on TV today 🎙 Sign up to our Arts and Culture newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... BBC has confirmed its TV plans for Glastonbury today. It includes broadcasting Charli XCX's set on the Other Stage. But when exactly can you watch it at home? Brat summer might have come and gone, but you can relive it at Glastonbury Festival this weekend. Charli XCX is set to perform at Worthy Farm in a matter of hours and it won't be one to miss. The pop sensation will be headlining the Other Stage and her set has been picked for coverage on BBC One. The broadcaster has confirmed its TV plans for the weekend here. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad A live stream from five stages will be taking place on iPlayer as well. The Beeb has promised over 90 hours across the whole festival. What time is Charli XCX at Glastonbury on TV? Charli XCX (c) at the Grammy Awards in 2025. |for The Recording Academy The BBC's live TV coverage of Saturday at Worthy Farm is due to begin at 5pm today (June 28). Viewers will be able to tune into BBC Two from that time to catch performances throughout the late afternoon and evening. Raye's performance on the Pyramid Stage will kick-off the day's coverage on BBC One. It is on from 9.10pm until 10.10pm and is followed by the evening news. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Charli XCX might not be headlining the Pyramid Stage but the Brat mastermind has been picked for coverage on the Beeb's main channel. It will begin at 10.30pm and continue until 11.40pm. Over on BBC Two, the live coverage will continue from 10.10pm and into the early hours of Sunday morning. The preview on Radio Times mentions Neil Young - who is headlining the Pyramid Stage. Throughout the weekend, BBC iPlayer will have live streams from the five main stages and over 90 hours of coverage is promised.
BBC News
12 hours ago
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Doechii's Glastonbury slot is all part of her five-year plan
In 2023, Doechii announced she was three years into her five-year plan for becoming one of the biggest names in music."By year five I want to be at my peak," she told Billboard magazine."I want to be in my Sasha Fierce era, the top of my game with still a long way to go - but I want to reach my prime and never leave it."Back then, it felt like a bold claim. The Florida-born rapper and singer had scored a couple of viral hits - most notably Persuasive, an ode to marijuana that ended up on Barack Obama's summer playlist - but nothing that had crossed over to the mainstream jump-cut to 2025 and Doechii is a Grammy Award-winning "woman of the year", who's about to play one of the most hotly-anticipated sets at Glastonbury hard to identify the turning point. Some people say it was her mesmerising performance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert last her hair carefully braided to her backing dancers, she delivered a meticulously-choreographed performance of Boiled Peanuts and Denial Is a River - a cartoonish character piece, in which she confides to her therapist that her boyfriend's been cheating on her with another man. Others pinpoint her Tiny Desk Concert, released on YouTube two days later. The 15-minute set bursts with joie de vivre, simultaneously soulful and fiery, as the star rattles through jazzy, full-band recreations of her mixtape, Alligator Bites Never Heal. She won even more fans at the Grammys in March, where she won best rap album, making her just the third female artist to win in the her speech, she spoke directly to young, black, queer women like her: "Don't allow anybody to project any stereotypes on you, to tell you that you can't be here, that you're too dark or that you're not smart enough or that you're too dramatic or you're too loud."She capped off her win with an ultra-physical performance that referenced Michael Jackson, Missy Elliott and Bob Fosse - and ended with her pulling the splits while being held aloft by five male dancers. With three "star-is-born" performances in just four months, Doechii became the most talked-about new rapper of her generation... just like she planned. So where did it all start? Doechii was born Jaylah Ji'mya Hickmon in Tampa, Florida and raised in a "heavily Christian" single-parent household by her mother, Celesia Moore.A studious kid who loved writing poetry, she invented her alter-ego at the age of 11, after being viciously bullied in school."I was in a position where I thought about killing myself because the bullying was so bad," she told Dazed magazine in February."Then I had this realisation: I'm not gonna do that, because then they're gonna all get a chance to live and I'm gonna be the one dead."Overnight, her attitude shifted."Jaylah might've been getting bullied, but I decided Doechii wouldn't stand for that," she recalled in an interview with Vulture. "And then," she told The Breakfast Club, "I went to school in a tutu and I started doing music." As a teenager, she spent four years at Tampa's Howard W. Blake School of the Arts, after winning a place on the choral programme by performing Etta James' At Last. The school unlocked her creativity, allowing her to take classes in everything from nail design and hair, to ballet, tap, cheerleading and stage production. However, it was gymnastics that left the biggest impression."The way that gymnasts train is really, really tough. It's brutal and hard and difficult," she told Gay Times. "But at some point in my gymnastic career I learnt how to embrace and really love pain. To view pain as me getting stronger and better. That caused a deep discipline that has never left me."The school also helped the teenager accept her sexuality."Even though I was aware [that I was queer], I didn't feel as comfortable until I started surrounding myself with more gay friends at my school. "Once I had gay friends it was like, 'OK, I can be myself, I'm good, I can feel safe, this is normal, I'm fine.' I have those same friends today and will have them for life."That's not all they gave her: Those same friends convinced Doechii to give up her ambitions of becoming a chorister, and start writing and releasing her own music. Initially called iamdoechii, she uploaded her first song to Soundcloud in 2016, and released her debut single Girls two years later. It already bore the hallmarks of her best work: Rhythmically and lyrically dextrous, and chock full of personality. "Taking nudes / None of them for you," she chided over a mellow electric piano, before the beat switched up and her rapping became more frenetic. By the closing bars, she barely had time catch breath as she listed her accomplishments. "Making money from my phone, huh / Doechii finally in her zone."The lines were more prophecy than reality. Doechii had a solid following on YouTube, but she was still working at Zara to make ends meet. In 2019, she was booked for a showcase in New York City and hopped on a bus - without the money for her return trip. "The night after, I slept at a McDonald's," she recalled in a 2022 interview. "And then I had to call one of my mom's friends... and, like, beg her to let me sleep at her house. And I ended up living there until I got back on my feet." 'Drowning in vices' Things started to turn around with the release of 2020's Yucky Blucky Fruitcake, named after Junie B. Jones's children's book, in which Doechii sketched out her own to the lyrics, she was precocious ("I try to act smart 'cause I want a lot of friends"), competitive ("I get a little violent when I play the game of tag") and frequently broke ("My momma used stamps 'cause she need a little help").The song marked a breakthrough in her writing."I was lacking this sense of vulnerability and honesty in my music," she told Billboard, until "I learned accuracy and just saying exactly what it is, like on Lucky Blucky Fruitcake".The song went viral, winning her a record deal with Top Dawg Entertainment - the label that launched Kendrick Lamar and SZA. She followed it up with the effortlessly hooky Persuasive, earning praise from SZA (who jumped on a remix) and former President Barack Obama."I can't imagine Obama just jamming my song," she exclaimed. "I just don't believe it, but if he really does – that's crazy." Doechii next collaborated with Kodak Black on the 2023 single What It Is (Block Boy), earning her first Top 40 hit. Then, everything stalled. Subsequent singles flopped, and Doechii was, as she later wrote on social media, "drowning in my own vices, battling differences with my label and a creative numbness that broke me".Initially, her Alligator Bites Never Heal mixtape looked set to repeat the pattern. Released last August, it entered the US charts at number 117 and vanished a week reviews were ecstatic. Critics loved the acerbic, funny lyrics, that saw Doechii unpack the trials and tribulations of the last two years; and heaped praise on bars that recalled greats such as Q-Tip, Lauryn Hill and Slick Rick, while keeping pace with contemporaries like Kendrick Lamar. After a period dominated by the mumbled bars of Souncloud rap, her precision was a breath of fresh air."One of the year's most fully-realized breakout albums," wrote Rolling Stone. "If this is the sound of Doechii pushing against constraints, a little friction might not be the worst thing," added Pitchfork. As word spread, she was booked to play the Colbert show and Tiny Desk. Those performances lit a rocket under her career. By April, Alligator had chomped into the US Top 10, and the UK Top 40. Around the same time, she bowed to fan pressure by releasing her 2019 YouTube song, Anxiety, a pop-rap crossover based on a sample of Gotye's Somebody That I Used To Know. With an eye-catching video that recreated a full-on panic attack, it hit number three in the UK, and even earned Doechii a citation in medical journal Psychology Today."The song and accompanying video work so well in showing exactly how anxiety feels in our bodies and minds," wrote Professor Sandra Chafouleas. "Think about quick and short breaths, racing thoughts, and worrying about things that haven't happened yet. Anxiety feels like 'Anxiety' sounds, with brilliant mirroring of how the experience can hijack us."Since then, Doechii's been hard at work on her debut album. There'd been rumours she'd release it in time for her Glastonbury slot on Saturday night, but perfectionists have got to perfect. At the time of writing, she's still in the to Dazed, she dropped a few hints of what's in store. "In Alligator Bites Never Heals, the archetype was a student of hip-hop. For this next project, I'm thinking about how this student develops. "Who does she develop into? What has she learned? I'm still unpacking how that character develops into this next project."Despite the delay, Doechii's headline set remains one of Glastonbury's biggest draws. She might only be performing for 45 minutes, but she'll make every one of them the star boasted on her single Nosebleeds: "Will she ever lose? Man, I guess we'll never know."
UPI
19 hours ago
- Entertainment
- UPI
LL Cool J to host hip-hop docuseries for Paramount+
1 of 3 | LL Cool J is slated to host a new hip-hop docuseries for the Paramount + streaming service. File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo June 27 (UPI) -- Paramount+ announced Friday that LL Cool J is soon to helm a fresh music docuseries for its platform that will provide a deep dive into everything hip-hop. LL Cool J, born James Todd Smith, is an MC and performer with two Grammy Awards under his belt. He is also a Kennedy Center honoree and a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, among other achievements. For Paramount's Hip Hop Was Born Here five-episode series, LL Cool J will take on the role of host, and chat with other hip-hop notables and icons. Intended to show how hip-hop was born, grew and continues to evolve both as a musical genre and a culture, LL Cool J is slated to chat with fellow classic rap stars such as Big Daddy Kane, Doug E. Fresh, Grandmaster Caz, Marley Marl, Rev Run, Roxanne Shante and Method Man. He'll also spend time with newer artists, such as Crystal Caines and Lady London, among others. LL Cool J is also a co-executive producer of the series, a responsibility he shares with a group that also includes NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning. Hip Hop Was Born Here will premiere on Paramount+ on July 22 in the United States, Canada, Brazil and across Latin America before showing up on the streaming service across Britain, France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Australia the next day. The program's trailer is available to view via the Paramount+ YouTube channel.
