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Yahoo
10 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Critics call Lorde's ‘Virgin' both a ‘reinvention' and ‘a return to bangers'
Four years after her pandemic-induced pivot to sunshine and acoustic guitars on Solar Power, Lorde has returned with her fourth album, Virgin. Behind the scenes, the Kiwi pop star changed up producers, leaving behind recent collaborator Jack Antonoff, but the first reviews for Virgin are heralding the return of the old Lorde (in some ways, at least). Vulture's Craig Jenkins frames the album as a response to the release of Solar Power and celebrates its understanding of the singer's audience. More from Gold Derby Marge lives! Here are 3 other 'Simpsons' characters that returned from the grave - and 3 who stayed dead Fast cars vs. killer dolls: 'F1,' 'M3GAN 2.0' gear up for box-office showdown "Everything about Virgin, Lorde's fourth album, feels like a reaction to trials preceding and following Solar Power," he writes. "Virgin is rife with epiphanies earned in tussles with one's own established persona. But these cerebral dispatches realize their audience often experiences the work communally and tends to enjoy it most when accompanied by flowing synths and insistent drums. Pure Heroine and Melodrama left indelible marks on mainstream music; Lorde is instrumental to the 21st-century whisper-singer epidemic. Heroine's lean minimalism is one of many sonic precursors to the commercial breakthrough of Taylor Swift's 1989 and thus kin to its many scion. Virgin is a return to bangers." And while the sound may be something more akin to the tracks off of Pure Heroine and Melodrama, there's a strong consensus that Virgin represents a lyrics and sonic evolution for Lorde. "The result is nearly 40 minutes of undeniable pop bangers and jagged synth flashes where Lorde wipes parts of her past clean and makes room for the adult she has crystallized into," writes Rolling Stone's Maya Georgi. "Since [Solar Power], fans have clamored for Lorde to return to the swooping, alternative synth-pop that defined her early career, which means the stakes are particularly high for Virgin. She has answered the call with an album that isn't trying to capture something from the past, but instead leans into the chaos of reinvention." A significant element of the changes present in Virgin's lyrical content seems to be the natural passage of time. Lorde broke onto the scene with "Royals" at the age of 16. For those keeping track at home, that was 12 years ago. "You could call Virgin a coming-of-age album for Lorde's late 20s. It's as if she's finally realized that to come of age is actually a messy, lifelong process — that as sturdy as you think your sense of self is, it'll keep snagging on things that unravel it," writes NPR's Hazel Cillis. "As familiar as Virgin might sound at first play, the Lorde here isn't — and that's a good thing. 'Who's gon' love me like this?' Lorde sings on 'Man of the Year,' in the throes of a breakup. 'Now I'm broken open?' The old Lorde would never sing that. The old Lorde would never even let us see her break." While some critics, like Paste's Matt Mitchell, find the return to bangers as somewhat of a step down in ambition, the move doesn't keep Virgin from being a major piece of work. "Musically, it's the least-ambitious album Lorde has ever made, thanks to her avoidance of the big hooks and explosive resolutions that pop orthodoxy demands," he writes. "But, in an undeniably personal collection of songs full of clichés and gestures toward conversations around earthly desires, gender, and habitual living, it's Ella Yelich O'Connor's most important statement yet." And since this is a Lorde album — which is to say that it's influential — there's a utility in digging through Virgin to see where it will inevitably lead pop music for the next few years. "Obviously, Virgin is very autobiographical and a bit of an elaborate self-cleanse, but it's also the sound of a person in the second half of their twenties finding wisdom and themselves," writes Variety's Jem Aswad. "And judging by how often in the past few years she's been cited as a major influence by young female artists, it will be interesting to see how far this album reaches." Best of Gold Derby Billboard 200: Chart-topping albums of 2025 Billboard Hot 100: Every No. 1 song of 2025 The B-52s' Kate Pierson talks Rock Hall snub, influencing John Lennon, and fears a solo album would be a 'betrayal' to her band Click here to read the full article.
Irish Times
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Lorde: Virgin review – Glittery, gritty and fabulously absorbing
Virgin Artist : Lorde Label : Universal Early fame, the evidence would suggest, is both blessing and curse. Few artists will know what it is like to have a global number one, as Ella Yelich-O'Connor, aka Lorde , did with her debut single, Royals, in 2013. But then came the tricky question of what happened next. How could she follow up the overnight celebrity she achieved while still a teenager? Where could she go after Royals? She went everywhere, in a way. Her LP Melodrama , from 2017, was a splurgy, let-it-all-out reckoning with early adulthood. It found her connecting with Jack Antonoff , producer of Taylor Swift, and in the process frying the brain of the hitmaker Max Martin, who concluded that her single Green Light 'broke all the rules' in terms of its structure and tempo. Melodrama was a hit, but the drama was only starting. That D-word arrived in earnest with the shadows-in-sunshine of Solar Power , a folksy phantasmagoria full of David Lynch weirdness that divided her fans. READ MORE Lorde told The Irish Times this month that Solar Power was a process she had to go through – if only to come out the other side. It sounds like a lot of effort to go to. Still, you can appreciate the wisdom of her words when listening to Virgin, its glittery, gritty and fabulously absorbing follow-up. Here, triumphantly and irresistibly, is a brooding blockbuster as visceral and emotionally gory as its predecessor was darkly becalmed. [ Lorde on weight loss and body image: 'It's this evil little rite of passage for a lot of women' Opens in new window ] Since Royals, Lorde has emerged as one of pop's pre-eminent shape changers. She has characterised Virgin as self-conscious reconnection with her foundational years as a pop star – with the wide-eyed adolescent who wrote Ribs and Team, and who became a global sensation. A lot happens in a decade, however. Inevitably, then, her fourth album has a grown-up, lived-in quality absent from her early work. She's only 28, but already there are miles on the clock. Lorde feels the weight of it on What Was That, a propulsive teaser release about learning to fully inhabit your body while overcoming an unhappy break-up. Bad romances and physical manifestation of your trauma make for a rather abstruse pairing – even more so when taking into consideration the fact that Lorde has talked about using MDMA (name-checked in the chorus) to treat her anxiety, in particular her crippling stage fright. Yet for all the tune's esoteric qualities – few of us will microdose in order to overcome workplace anxiety – there is something readily comprehensible about the bone-deep nature of Virgin. That is the case whether Lorde is talking about going off her birth control or taking a pregnancy test, on Clearblue, or discussing her tomboyish qualities, on the menacingly woozy Man of the Year, a gothic weepy sure to take its place among the pantheon of Lorde ballads. Amid all the yearning and gurning, much of Virgin is straightforwardly and fantastically relentless. Lorde goes retro electropop with a vengeance on If She Could See Me Now. Certain to become a future fan favourite, it is a slow-mo synthwave wonder and the closest the LP comes to the cyberpunk confessional energy of Girl, So Confusing, her collaboration with Charli XCX from 2024. A work of many shapes and moods, Virgin sees catharsis turn to confessional on Favourite Daughter. It is a love letter to the singer's poet mother that blends the blinking-in-the-sunlight yearning of Pure Heroine , Lorde's first album, with a deep weariness of fame. (She has learned that it means more to her to be respected by her parents than to be cheered by strangers.) She bares her heart in a different way on Current Affairs. It opens a dolorous Joy Division-style bass riff, the gloomy tone reflected in the lyrics ('Mama, I'm so scared ... I'm crying on the phone'). Slathered in angst and regret, the lyrics scan as a meditation on a fling gone wrong ('on the boat it was pure and true'). It's a love song as noirish exorcism – as the best love songs always are. In that conversation with The Irish Times Lorde agreed that Virgin had an almost 'body horror' quality: it is tumultuous, fully in the moment and at times more about the texture than the lyrics. Rapturous, at times a little out of control, it's scarily great fun and – this seems to have been the point all the time – the spiritual opposite of Solar Power. The light has faded, darkness has crept in and Lorde is looking to the stars and re-engaging with her sense of wonder.
Irish Times
21-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Lorde on weight loss and body image: ‘It's this evil little rite of passage for a lot of women'
There is a note of sadness in Lorde 's voice as she thinks back to her last visit to Ireland . 'I was deep in the weeds,' she says. 'I was about a week post break-up of my long-term relationship and I was really stuck. I had sort of just come off my birth control. I was having this crazy kind of hormonal swing.' This was August 2023, and Lorde – aka the songwriter and pop star Ella Yelich-O'Connor – was headlining the All Together Now festival in Waterford. On a gorgeous blue-skied evening, her performance was typically confident and cathartic, as she moved, quicksilver-fast, between hits such as Team and Green Light, the effervescent 2017 banger that she wrote with Taylor Swift's producer Jack Antonoff . [ Lorde at All Together Now: Knockout performance underscores singer's star power Opens in new window ] Behind the scenes, though, she was reeling. She had split from her partner of nearly a decade, the Australian record executive Justin Warren, and was also working through the emotional aftershock of a brief eating disorder – subjects that she addresses frankly and viscerally on her brilliantly propulsive new album, Virgin. 'This record is a byproduct of an insane personal quest of the last couple of years,' she says. Lorde has never held back as a songwriter: her debut single, Royals, for example, from 2013, took aim at the music industry's history of prioritising commerce over art. Still, even by her own highly confessional standards, the honesty with which she talks about body image on Virgin is striking. 'I cover up all the mirrors … make a meal I won't eat,' she sings on the single What Was That, a bittersweet disco onslaught that blends euphoria and emotional torment. READ MORE Smiling softly, she explains that working on the album was part of the process of making herself whole again – and of reflecting on her issues around her weight. 'It was actually really hard for me to accept. I almost still can't accept it. I'm lucky in that it wasn't very long,' she says. 'It could definitely have been a lot worse. For me, any kind of restriction of who I am supposed to be just does not work. It completely blocked my creativity and cut me off from a life force. 'It took me quite a long time to realise that was happening. It's also like this evil little rite of passage for a lot of women. I don't think it's a unique experience I had. It felt algorithmically predestined or something.' Yelich-O'Connor was a 16-year-old kid from the Auckland suburbs when Royals became a global number one; the follow-up album, Pure Heroine, went on to sell more than five million copies. Her megastardom endures: tickets for her first stand-alone Dublin show, at the RDS this November, sold out in a heartbeat. That journey – a rollercoaster with no emergency brake – has left scars. Virgin is, in part, a reckoning with that painful transformation from everyday teenager to international chart-topper. 'You form totally differently when people are looking at you from a young age,' she says. 'I still dream probably once a month that a man is taking a photo of me with a long-lens camera. It's deep in my subconscious that someone might be looking at me and capturing something that I'm [not ready] for them to see.' But she was ready to show a vulnerable side last year when she and Charli XCX , her friend and fellow star, collaborated on a remix of Charli's song Girl, So Confusing. The crowning moment in Charli's 'Brat summer', the track was also a red-letter moment for Lorde, in that it flung the veil off a period of immense turmoil. Girl, So Confusing, which thrillingly combines Charli's Day-Glo mosh-pit energy with Lorde's elevated goth vibes, had its origins in a low-key rift between these close acquaintances. Lorde was going through her issues, and Charli was aware of a growing distance between the two. She wondered if she had said or done something. It was, as Charli sang, 'so confusing'. On the remix, which confirmed internet speculation about the identity of the 'girl' in the lyrics, Lorde sets her straight, singing, 'for the last couple years I've been at war in my body. I tried to starve myself thinner, and then I gained all the weight back. I was trapped in the hatred.' 'It felt super scary and vulnerable for me to be expressing on that level,' Lorde says about the song, which she joined Charli XCX on stage to sing at Coachella earlier this year. 'But I had been working on Virgin for a good while at that point and was trying to make this statement about femininity that was uncompromising and very truthful.' [ Charli XCX at Malahide Castle review: High flying pop star brings Brat to Dublin but never quite achieves lift-off Opens in new window ] Lorde talks about embracing 'discomfort' as a tool for personal growth. That was point of Girl, So Confusing and the two singles she has released from Virgin, What Was That and Man of the Year, the latter a stark unpacking of her 2023 break-up. 'I'd come to this realisation as an artist that my personal discomfort is … I'm not going to let my fear stand in the way of making an expression of truth that feels really important to make,' she says. 'It might, I don't know, be helpful for other people to hear. Just doing the scary thing – I was, like, just see what happens if you do it. And [it was] so cool that I had been working on this album and then, kind of unbeknownst to me, Charli had been processing her own uncompromising womanhood, trying to become that sort of woman also. 'It felt like the right moment to test the waters of the direction of some of the subject matter I'd been writing for my own record and [meet] her vulnerability with my own vulnerability. There had to be something on the line for it to really land. It was freaky – but beautiful too. I felt something release in me when the song released.' Testing the waters included talking about her feelings about gender. She told Rolling Stone recently that she is 'in the middle gender-wise' – a point she reiterates in Hammer, her new album's opening track, singing, 'some days I'm a woman/ some days I'm a man'. (In recent public appearances she had been dressing in androgynous grey slacks and tees.) Lorde clarifies that she still identifies as a woman but has always felt a masculine energy within her, something she has historically pushed down, feeling that society would judge her. On Virgin she is learning to embrace it. If men are allowed get in touch with their feminine side, why can't women celebrate their inner masculinity? 'We have these containers, some of which are really helpful and work really well for us, and some of which just don't do the job. And for me, understanding that I am a woman, that's how I identify … I don't see that changing,' she says. 'But there's also something in me that is masculine, and I've always been that way since I was a child. There was a 'bothness' to me. And being okay with that, not being easy to be boxed up, you … It can be a bit uncomfortable to not have the tidiness. But I think that it's worth it for me to be true to myself and see what comes as a result.' Born in 1996, Lorde grew up on Auckland's North Shore, the daughter of a poet mother of Croatian heritage and a civil-engineer father of Irish extraction. When she was six she was identified as a 'gifted child', though her mother vetoed her attending a school for children of exceptional intelligence, fearing it might impact her social development. She was undoubtedly precocious: she was a keen poetry reader before her 10th birthday; at 14 she was editing her mother's master's thesis. Her musical breakthrough was the result of talent, luck and perseverance. A friend of her father's saw her perform at a school talent contest, in which she sang songs by Pixie Lott and Duffy. Impressed by her haunting voice and natural stage presence, he tipped off Universal Records, which paired her with the veteran indie musician Joel Little. Hitting it off immediately, they would work together during weekends or when O'Connor was on school holidays, capturing in music the experiences of being a teenager: the intensity of adolescent friendship, the big dreams, the anxiety about the future. All of those were poured into Royals, an overnight hit that knocked Miley Cyrus's Wrecking Ball off the top of the US charts and made Lorde, at 16, the youngest woman to have a US number one since Tiffany, with I Think We're Alone Now, in 1987. Virgin is in many ways a continuation of Royals and Pure Heroine, in that it is immediately catchy yet has an aura of mystery. What's new is what Lorde identifies as the record's 'visceral' quality: it feels like a body-horror movie in reverse. The cover image is a blue-tinted X-ray of a pelvis that shows a belt buckle, a trouser zip and, referencing her decision to come off birth control, a contraceptive coil. Her lyrics talk unflinchingly about women's bodies: ovulation, piercings and the cutting of the umbilical cord. It oozes emotional gore, but in a way intended to celebrate rather than shame or stigmatise. 'I felt I didn't have a document, or a piece of art, that expressed to me the visceral, intense, gross ... but also beautiful ... glory … all these elements to being in a female body. I need them all to be present. 'There's something pretty unsparing about how I do it. I believe that is a statement of value. When I was making the album I was, like, 'I don't see women's bodies, I don't see the fullness of a woman's body online…' It feels important to me to show this.' Virgin arrives four years after Lorde's previous LP, Solar Power . A departure from her more zestful pop, the album had a languid, lulling quality that threw much of her audience. It was mesmerising, but there were no bangers. Some fans are still conflicted about it. Lorde adores the record – and believes she is a stronger artist for putting out a project perceived as not having done as well as its predecessors. 'I love that album. I'm so grateful for it. I'm so proud of myself, actually, for making it, because it required a big step off the path or on to another path, maybe,' she says. 'It changed me as an artist. I'd been sort of this like golden child, and I had had this experience of having the first things that I put out being met with such a glowing response in a lot of ways. 'Having a response that was different to that was super, like, informative. It made me realise that you have got to be making work that, no matter what the response is, you just love … 100 per cent, because that response' – public adulation – 'isn't guaranteed, and it can't be what's going to fill you up.' Lorde would like to think that Virgin will be received differently – but she won't be devastated if that's not the case. 'I really remember saying that I wanted ... to feel, no matter what happens tomorrow, this is everything I want. I'm so proud of this. There's nothing I would do differently. I remember saying that to myself and totally feel like that … This could get panned, God forbid, but it could – and I would [still] love it so much.' Solar Power 'taught me a lot. I do love that album. It's beautiful and sweet.' Famous her entire adult existence, Lorde has experienced both the highs and the lows of life in the spotlight. Does she ever feel in competition with other women artists? That's how the industry often works, after all, setting women musicians against each other, making them feel that, for them to thrive, others must fail. 'I was talking to Charli about this, actually. She said, 'Yeah, we all have our fragile eras.' Sometimes you're just in your fragile era, and I think particularly when you're forming a statement, like when I'm making an album but it's early days, and I don't really have any architecture that I'm living underneath, that can absolutely be the moment where the kind of competition – or, sorry, the comparison – can creep up.' Her way of working through those doubts has been to acknowledge that there's a certain sound only she can make: to embrace the pure, heroic Lordeness of who she is and what she does. 'Honestly, the last couple years I've just been on such a mission of trying to really understand what it is that only I can do, because there's just so much value in that, and that really has shifted my mindset away from, like, 'Oh, but I can't do this as well as she can do this.' I'm, like, 'No … you're one of one. You're the number-one expert in the world at doing your thing.' She pauses and smiles again. 'It's helpful.' Virgin is released on Friday, June 27th. Lorde plays the RDS, in Dublin, on Saturday, November 22nd
Yahoo
17-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Sabrina Carpenter Is ‘Eternally' Thankful After ‘Manchild' Debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100
The success of Sabrina Carpenter's new single 'Manchild' on the charts has been anything but stupid, slow or useless, with the track debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 this week. And to celebrate the feat, the typically cheeky pop star uploaded an earnest message to fans on her Instagram Story on Monday (June 16). 'I can't tell you how much this means to me!!!!' she wrote, sharing Billboard's post about the accomplishment. 'This song makes me so happy.' More from Billboard Sabrina Carpenter's 'Manchild' Debuts at No. 1 on Billboard Hot 100 Don Was Remembers Brian Wilson's 'Mystical' Genius: 'He Explored Creative Territory Where No Musicians Had Gone Before' How LadyLand, the Scrappy Festival That Could, Is Shaping Queer Culture & Live Music In NYC 'Thank you eternally for listening,' added Carpenter, who also tagged her 'Manchild' collaborators, producer Jack Antonoff and songwriter Amy Allen, and wrote, 'I love ya.' The singer also reacted to the news on X, writing, 'i had a funny response but I'm just gonna say thank you <3' Serving as the lead single to Carpenter's new album Man's Best Friend, 'Manchild' dropped on June 5. The track is her first to debut in the Hot 100's top spot, and her second total No. 1 hit so far (following 'Please Please Please' in 2024). Man's Best Friend is set to arrive in August, almost exactly one year after the Girl Meets World alum unveiled her breakthrough album Short n' Sweet. In a recent cover story interview with Rolling Stone, Carpenter explained why she took such a brief break between albums, pointing out that it wasn't atypical back in the day for idols Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt to release an LP every year. 'I'm like, 'When did we stop doing that?' Writers write, they make music, and they release music,' Carpenter told the publication. 'If I really wanted to, I could have stretched out Short n' Sweet much, much longer. But I'm at that point in my life where I'm like, 'Wait a second, there's no rules.' If I'm inspired to write and make something new, I would rather do that. Why would I wait three years just for the sake of waiting three years?' Best of Billboard Chart Rewind: In 1989, New Kids on the Block Were 'Hangin' Tough' at No. 1 Janet Jackson's Biggest Billboard Hot 100 Hits H.E.R. & Chris Brown 'Come Through' to No. 1 on Adult R&B Airplay Chart
Daily Mail
12-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Sabrina Carpenter sends fans wild as she strips down to her underwear for a bath with PIGS as pop star announces new album
Sabrina Carpenter has sent her fans wild as she shared a slew of stunning snaps to announce her new album. The hitmaker, 26, took to Instagram on Wednesday to announce that her new album Man's Best Friend will be released on August 29. Celebrating the news, she shared behind the scenes images from her latest music video for her single Manchild. In one snap, Sabrina turned heads as she donned nothing but pink underwear in a bubble bath with two pigs. The singer smiled at the camera in the tub with her thumbs up, while another snap saw her running in a white shirt and underwear. Sabrina captioned the upload: 'Manchild bts. Take a shot every time I wear a new outfit.' It comes after the cover art for the upcoming release sparked fierce criticism from fans. During an Instagram Live, the pop singer shared a video of herself flipping through a stack of records by Donna Summer, ABBA, and Dolly Parton, before stopping on her own, revealing Man's Best Friend. The teaser gave a peek at the album cover, showing Carpenter on all fours while a person dressed in black slacks — whose face is not visible — pulls her blonde hair. She also posted a close-up image of a heart-shaped dog collar engraved with Man's Best Friend. The highly sexualised and provocative album art quickly drew backlash. Last week, Carpenter dropped the lead single from the upcoming album, titled Manchild. It was co-written with Jack Antonoff, a longtime collaborator who is also well known for his extensive work with Taylor Swift. The track quickly climbed to the top spot on both the Spotify U.S. and Global charts. Her seventh studio album, Man's Best Friend, is set to release nearly a year after her previous chart-topping project, Short n' Sweet, which came out last August. All three singles from Short n' Sweet — Espresso, Please Please Please, and Taste — achieved the rare feat of entering Spotify's Billion Streams Club. The album sold 10 million copies worldwide and earned Carpenter six Grammy nominations as a first-time nominee. She won two awards: Best Pop Vocal Album and Best Pop Solo Performance for Espresso. Meanwhile, when Sabrina announced Manchild last week, she seemed to deliver a sharp dig at her ex Barry Keoghan. She cryptically captioned the announcement with, 'This one's about you!!' Sabrina and Barry began dating in December 2023 before going public with their romance during their joint appearance at the Met Gala in May 2024. The pair were said to have split in December however it was reported in the August that they were on and off. Barry was hit by claims he cheated on the hitmaker. However, a source told Us Weekly the actor was 'very devoted to her happiness', but that they are 'at different places in their lives.' The insider further divulged that it's been 'challenging for their relationship since she started going on tour and has been gone a lot' and that 'their schedules were not aligning.' 'All the time spent apart it was hard to maintain a relationship amid her career exploding.' Another insider told the publication that the breakup happened within 'the last month' because of their busy schedules. It was noted that there's no bad blood between the 'cordial' pair and their split was 'not contentious.' When previously asked by Rolling Stone if she refers to Barry as her boyfriend she said: 'How do I skirt around this question?'. 'The [dating] pool is the pool, and when you meet people that feel authentic and are so brilliant and amazing in every way, that's what you do. Obviously, I write songs about exactly how I feel, so I guess I can't be so surprised that people are interested in who and what those songs are about.'
