my personal ranking and review of Lorde's new album "Virgin"

as a HUGE Lorde fan, here are my thoughts on her latest album!!

Overall I LOVE the album. I think it is really an evolution in her sound and shows her growth as an artist, but still sounds 100% like Lorde. It feels like all of her other work (especially Pure Heroine) led to this album, which is exactly her sound and style just upgraded. 

The themes are really interesting and I enjoy the direction she took with the overall message of Virgin. I totally get it, between the title of Virgin, clear CDs and vinyl, X ray, and motifs all around self exploration and representing yourself truly and fully. The X ray album cover is so cool and makes so much sense with the lyrics of the whole album. To me, Lorde is literally looking inside and exposing every vulnerable part of herself in this album. 

In terms of the sound, I absolutely love the Pure Heroine-esque (at least to me) drums and sounds. A lot of the songs are almost electronic sounding, but so distinctly Lorde. My favorite track is If She Could See Me Now, which has the COOLEST retro sounding keyboard sound ever. I love the way so many of the songs build up, which you can especially hear in songs like Man of the Year, David, and Favorite Daughter. The overwhelming sounds at the end are so visceral and I absolutely love when the songs get loud. I feel like this album is really a step up and she fully leans in to her creativity in sound. 

Here is my personal ranking of the album:

#1 If She Could See Me Now - my jaw dropped on first listen. I LOVEEEE this song so much, it's so good. The sound, the lyrics, everything. It feels so badass and beautiful. I love "I pick a song and listen to it / Til it's just a piece of music". 

#2 David - so beautiful. The vocals are so haunting. I read that "David" as a name refers to the statue, and I think that connection is so interesting, especially with the lyrics of "I made you god cause it was all that I knew how to do". Anyone or anything can be made god to us. 

#3 Favorite Daughter - the "cause I'm an actress" part is so cool and catchy. I really like her vocals here and the lyrics are so vulnerable and real. I love the ending "Breaking my back just to be as brave as my mother". Amazing bridge

#4 Man of the Year - the music video for this is one of my favorite music videos ever. These might be my favorite lyrics of the album. Especially the idea of gender, being a man of the year and the lyrics connecting to "who could love me like this?". It's almost like she's asking how she can be loved when she lets her gender take up a more expansive space and let herself be more free. I love the build up and crashing at the end. 

#5 Clearblue - I LOVE the lyrics, and I think the style and rhythm is very interesting. It is almost like poetry or spoken word, it reminds me of Simulation Swarm by Big Thief

#6 Shapeshifter -  love the sound of this, it just feels a bit repetitive to me. I still really like this one though. 

#7 Current Affairs - also love the sound of this. Some of the lyrics are a bit much for me though - it's a little hard for me to listen and take completely seriously. But I actually really like the song, just the lyrics trip me up.  

#8  GRWM - I actually do like this song a lot. It's so catchy and I really like the way the beat starts and stops. But "in a baby tee" and "my mama's trauma" is just a little hard for me to listen to seriously lol. I love the song though!!

#9 What Was That - I do really like this one. It doesn't stand out that much, but it's still a very very solid track. Love a lot of the beats. 

#10 Broken Glass - again, I like the song, but some of the lyrics are a bit too on-the-nose and severe for me. The messages and lyrics are interesting though, and I relate. 

#11 Hammer - I'm sorry y'all, I'm not the biggest fan of this one. It's still a solid song, but I just don't really like how much it repeats and how electronic the entire song is. It feels a bit slow to me. 

Let me know what your thoughts are on the album! I'm curious to see what others think and if you agree/disagree.