WORTH A LOOK?: ****

Tracklist: Hammer; What Was That?; Shapeshifter; Man Of The Year; Favourite Daughter; Current Affairs; Clearblue; GRWM; Broken Glass; If She Could See Me …; David

Lorde debuted this new album in its entirety – in tracklist order – on the Woodsies stage as a surprise opening to this year’s Glastonbury Festival and that confidence is reflected in the material.

• Read on for reasons including why Virgin represents a right turn towards a welcome songwriting maturity and honesty

Its predecessor was not much loved by us and we wrote after seeing Lorde at Camden Roundhouse in June 2022: ‘We don’t love Lorde’s latest LP Solar Power in the same way we did its predecessor, Melodrama, which won the 2017 monsta for Best Album.’

As well as: ‘Lorde has multiple costume changes and engages the crowd in a way that makes you think she’s more comfortable in her own skin than when we last saw her live in 2017. It was the best gig this reviewer has seen in a long, long time and we’ve seen some absolute belters.’

We’re holidaying in Iceland for midsommar and hear Virgin for the 1st time while staying in Reykjavik next to the record store co-owned by the Sugacubes who included singer Bjork in their ranks.

It’s a comparison we think Lorde would be pleased with and lead-off single What Was That was a song of the week for us when we said: ‘Lorde wears ‘smoke like a wedding veil’ and navigates the aftermath of a break-up in this synth pop track reminding of the strength of her sophomore LP Melodrama.’

There’s a real rawness to the lyrics with Lorde musing on Man Of The Year: ‘Who’s gon love me like this?’ and by LP closer David she asks both: ‘Why do we run to the ones we do’ and ‘Am I ever gon love again?’

On opener Hammer ‘There’s a heat in the pavement, my mercury’s rising, don’t know if it’s love or ovulation.’

It’s physical heat combined with a gnawing sense of self awareness and maturing evident elsewhere but not least on the line: ‘I jerk tears and they pay me to do it.’

There’s sibling rivalry during Favourite Daughter: ‘Cause I’m an actress, all the medals I won for ya breaking my back just to be your Favourite Daughter…Breaking my back just to be as brave as my mother.’

Like Charli XCX’s Brat there’s motherhood contemplation on Clearblue after challenging behaviour: ‘Clearblue after the ecstasy testing for pregnancy … I rode you until I cried.’

Broken Glass reflects on eating disorder: ‘I wanna punch the mirror to make her see that this won’t last it might be months of bad luck but what if it’s just Broken Glass.’

Lorde plays The 02 in London for 2 nights in November and the good news is that Virgin represents a right turn away from last LP Solar Power and towards a welcome songwriting maturity and honesty that fans of Melodrama may have wished had followed it.

• Main pictures via Facebook courtesy Lorde Tickets
• Have you seen a Lorde show before and what did you think of this 1? Let us know what you thought in the comments below
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