Virgin Album Review

Virgin is an album that made me feel like I was floating all summer long and I am so intrigued by how much this analysis brought to my attention. Lorde is an artist in the most twisted and genius way. The choices that were used to make this album so special are incredibly smart and such a beautiful way to turn trauma into power. 

Hammer

The intro to “Hammer” is an ear piercing tremolo but it grabs my attention and shows me that this track will be a message and kaleidoscope into the way Lorde sees her world. The noise crowded in her ears, the burning heat outside, and her confusion about whether her body is aroused or it’s just natural overstimulation. The line “When you’re holding a hammer, everything looks like a nail” tells us that her temptations are out of her control and she doesn’t know when love is real or if it’s just attraction. All of these thoughts are rushing in as she’s just simply walking outside and suddenly she feels the cold mist hitting her from a water fountain. She admits that she will let anyone love her if they could please her sexually. The pre-chorus recognizes someone in their true form and accepts their faults and the fact that they “don’t have the answers” because neither does she. Regardless of what gender she feels like today, she believes in human connection. This chorus marks a breakthrough that she has no care for identifying herself. She wants to be a mess, overwhelmed with chaotic thoughts. The second verse tells us she will go wherever the wind takes her. The line “It’s a beautiful life, so I play truant” tells us that she is not concerned with a schedule and that she is mesmerized by the simple concept of life, so she will be following no rules. I am also deeply fascinated by the line “I jerk tears, and they pay me to do it.” She sees her music making as a way to bring out people’s emotions which is something she loves, and the concept of being rewarded and paid for this is just such a satisfying thought. The outro is a swill of chaos telling us that she wants to feel everything. She wants to be brought down and broken by her own thoughts about the world. She feels a duty to put these ideas into a “postcard” (the album) even if it takes up all her energy. 

What Was That

A quiet synth sound opens up this track and Lorde comes in with descriptive lyrics of the city, telling us that this is a New York album, not LA. The cleverness of the line “I wear smoke like a wedding veil” tells us that she is in a phase where smoking  is prominent and crucial to her survival. Most likely a coping mechanism for the fact that she is depressed about her gender confusion, lost love, and a lack of an appetite. As she brings herself out of her house, she realizes she is all alone and she misses her lost love. The pre-chorus is a flashback to all the drugs they used together in California. She misses that passion she used to feel and the ignorance that her relationship wasn’t giving her what she deserved; it was all the drugs. The line “Since I was seventeen, I gave you everything” is a bit confusing in that I am not sure if she is referring to her love relationship or her relationship with drugs. Screaming on the top of her lungs: “Baby, what was that?” displays her own confusion and the desire to throw her hands up for the entire situation. She admits that the relationship still consumes her mind when she is out at night. She shouts out the Baby’s All Right live music club in this verse to give the entire story depth and visualization. She claims that when she is dancing in the lights there, that is the only time she has clarity about all this and before saying anything more we head back into the chorus. The outro is a settling feeling in that she finds comfort in the fact that she can be clear and happy in the blue light of the club. 

Shapeshifter

The first three seconds of this track lets out a gasp that sounds like someone is falling from a height and letting out a breath. We head into a crowded room of thoughts about her sexual endeavors. She kind of slut shames herself a bit by saying “If I’m fine without it, why can’t I stop?” She wonders why she can’t stop sleeping with people if she doesn’t feel addicted. Each of these partners sort of mean nothing to her and it’s just physical bodies to her and so she “Give ’em nothing personal/ So I’m not affected.” If she were to put emotions into the relationships she would be ruined. She goes on to explain that she’s been in so many positions in life but now, all she wants is to be free and not have to be presenting herself in a certain way. The next verse pictures Lorde in a bar scene when she spots someone new. She knows she shouldn’t approach but the voices in her head convince her to move forward. The line “Visions of a teenage innocence/ How’d I shift shape like that?” tell us the types of feelings she gets when she wants to pursue a stranger. She feels like a kid again. Her innocence disappears in the blink of an eye and she is running after what she desires. She tries to stop but misses the mess and chaos that fills her life every time she tries to kiss it goodbye. The bridge is especially moving to me because it really represents indecisive thoughts and pushing down feelings. She knows she isn’t always right and has her fair share of terrible ideas but she really just wants to do whatever she wants all the time. The way she describes her indecisiveness and going back on her previous words as being a “Shapeshifter” is pure genius. 

Man Of The Year

The slight ring of the bass that opens up this track brings us on a “morning after something embarrassing happened” journey. She admits that this love interest has entered her life at a weird time where she is having crazy thoughts and identity crisis. Nevertheless, she seems proud of this era and feels more in control and happy with who she is. The chorus comes in quietly where she wonders who could be out there to love her in this confused but freedom state. So she moves on from this thought in the next verse describing a routine that seems to be a more masculine version of her day, displaying her gender confusion and little care for stereotypes. We repeat the chorus but instead of the third line being “Let it flow down to me” it is “Way he flows down through me” which portrays the manly side of her taking over her body. She chants “Let’s hear it for the man of the year” which is a shout of congratulations for a man that she is recognizing inside herself. The outro is a claim in which she admits that she is dying to be recognized as a person, not a man or woman, but a person who has many sides. She is grateful that she has been able to experience this mental and physical breakthrough in which she is so aware of the way she feels inside her body. So proudly, “Let’s hear it for the man of the year.”

Favourite Daughter

A soft siren cry at the beginning followed by a clap snare drum combo brings us into a story of a relationship between two people. Primarily, I believe this relationship to be between Lorde and her mother. She starts by describing the support she felt from her in the beginning of her career. Her mother believed in her and loved her art before anyone else even knew about it. The pre-chorus is a sequence of routines of a performer, but she admits that everyone in the room has no idea that she does this all to impress her mother. The chorus is a synth flow that takes us into a catchy message of just begging for parental approval. She needs to be the best, the favourite, and most of all, told she did well. The next verse references the stories she was told as a child about a man her mother believed she resembles in negative ways. The first pre-chorus has a third line “People who are convinced I’m not” and the second has a third line “I tell myself that soon we’ll talk.” This change tells us that it’s been a long time since the two have spoken. We head back into the chorus with the second line change of “Panic attack just to be your favourite daughter” which tells us that the lack of contact, reassurance, and approval causes her large amounts of anxiety. It tells us that everything means nothing without this special attention from her mother. The bridge is a persistence that Lorde has regardless of this lack of love from a parent followed by a scream of pain. Finally we go into the last chorus with the crash of the synth, where Lorde is confident in “I’m a good actress, look at the medals I won for ya.” Although she may never get what she desires, she knows she is so good at what she does. In this chorus, she is speaking directly to her mother screaming “Look at me! I’ve got this!”

Current Affairs

The introduction to “Current Affairs” is a calm, steady beat that takes us into Lorde’s drug trip in the middle of the park. This specific trip describes a scenario that has happened more than once. Lorde takes drugs, Lorde finds someone to sleep with. The metaphor of  “Then someone throws a flare” implies that sleeping with someone is never where she intends to end up but once someone makes a move, it’s all over. It’s not even the drugs that she seems to have an issue with. It is almost as if sleeping with people is the addiction she cannot resist. The pre-chorus is a cry for help in that Lorde is so terrified and desperate for help she is begging for her absent mother. She describes the vile act of a man spitting in her mouth as if it’s something casual. She pretends to be okay with it, but it kills her inside that she allows men to handle her like this. She pretends it’s all a part of the way things are in this day and age. The next verse is a slew of depressing thoughts. She wonders if her lover would go so far just to kill her spirit. A repetition of the chorus and pre-chorus tells us that even after all of the scary thoughts, she lets all this happen to her again. But this time she wonders to her mother “Were you ever like this?” Desperate for someone to relate to her and give her a reason why she could possibly feel this way. Even if she confronts him, she knows that in the end he will blame it on “Current Affairs” and lure her back into the same trap of temptation and pressure.

Clearblue

This is one of the most thought provoking, poetic tracks on the album. I find it to be extremely raw and heartbreaking. No instruments. Just a layered vocal, revealing exactly what she is afraid of. We begin straight into the first verse, which tells us that there is a pregnancy scare after the confusion of a lot of unprotected sex and drugs. The lead up to checking the results is a poetic description of Lorde taking a test and revealing herself to it in a sort of dehumanizing way. The line “Your metal detector hits my precious treasure, I’m nobody’s daughter/ Yeah, baby, I’m free, I’m Free” tells us that she finds her body to be a sacred place that she just allowed the test to see. Claiming she is free implies that a pregnancy would be a way to trap her. The second verse takes us into a thought of what a baby would do to her body. It would make it a shared space. A fight inside her of whose possession it is. In the end of the pregnancy, the baby inside would break the jail inside of her insides. She imagines the fight the child would put up to get out, won’t stop until it sees the clearness of the real world. She imagines this child discovering the world and riding along with the hardships. The third verse is a confession to the man that could have impregnated her. Once they have realized that the crisis is averted, they have sex again but it’s emotional for her. She feels alive but in a way is so unaware of her body and how the fear felt in the first place. The outro is a regretful feeling, wishing she held on to the test instead of tossing it away, to keep it as a lesson for herself. Simultaneously, she wishes she kept it also to remember feeling so alive in the fear of it all. 

GRWM

We open up in the setting of the shower. The morning after another night with someone else. The line “Jumping from stone to stone in the riverbed, I guess” is a casual way to say that she is a mess surrounded by chaos. The pre-chorus reveals to us that a woman may never truly know what she wants in life so she chooses to be “A grown woman in a baby tee.” The next verse describes simple characteristics about herself. They all tell a story of how she got to be who she is today. Each detail is a memory, and now, a grown woman. She references her “mama’s trauma.” Telling the audience that even though the two do not have a relationship, she will always inherit her worst qualities and hereditary issues. The line “Since ‘96, been looking for a grown woman” tells us that she has always wanted to grow up. She has never wanted to be a little kid. Until now, she has been uncomfortable in her body.

Broken Glass

The sequence that opens up this track tells us that this will be a release of bad feeling. The short and clear cut lyrics let her admit things and present statements that are literal and true. She admits that she has not had the best year. Telling the audience that she was “Sucked in by arithmetic,” which is a type of math that deals with the “manipulation” of numbers shows us that she believes she was manipulated into a bad relationship with multiple people. She is ashamed of this and will admit that she wanted it in some ways and is partly responsible. The pre-chorus is a string of questions that reveals she had horrible reactions to the troubling feelings of the last year and let it all phase her- “Lose my freak about that.” The chorus follows this with the line “I wanna punch the mirror/ To make her see that this won’t last.” This means to me that she wishes she could get herself to believe that everything will be better one day. Her heart tells her that she will come out of these feelings, but her head says otherwise. She brings back the excuse that she “Spent my summer getting lost in math,” blaming her issues again on manipulation that other people led her into. The line following “Making weight took all I had” tells us that she also had trouble dealing with an eating issue and she was trying to get better. She knows she must look it in the face and fix the problem. It’s tough to admit to herself how much she is attracted to her personal unhealthy body and the habits that cause it to have this appearance. The next pre-chorus has turned into statements instead of questions. The line “Lettin her treat me like that” is a reference to the way she treats herself. She is disappointed that she treats herself poorly and sees this version of herself as a different persona. The string of lyrics “Keep the faith/ Same mistakes/ Just a phase/ Just a phase” tells us that she feeds herself these affirmations that her behavior is okay because it will be over one day. One day she will fix it all and pick up the pieces because after all, it is just some “Broken Glass.”

If She Could See Me Now

The sharp hits of notes crowded with distortion and drive tell us that Lorde is feeling strong on this track. The first verse is a spiritual feeling about the streets of New York City. The line “Cause I’m a mystic, I swim in waters/ That would drown so many other bitches” is a sort of boast that she deals with a lot of shit in her life and the weight that she feels from that would destroy people with normal brains. Following this line, the lyric “Got me lifted, feeling so gifted” is not exactly a sample to the song “Suga Suga” by Baby Bash, but it is a play on their lyrics. The next verse is a power play of a scene in the gym. Lorde uses her strength physically to scare away her mental illnesses and the bad memories she faces from a bad relationship. Saying “Yesterday I lifted your body weight” makes a man seem so insignificant and mentally small. The chorus is a reflection on the way Lorde has felt so ashamed and timid in her relationship. When she was reamed out by her partner or spoken down to she never had retaliation. Yet, she is proud of who she is now. The verse following is a message to this partner, passive aggressively wishing them the best and basically saying “go chase that fake life and fame that you’re looking for.” As for herself though, she wants to turn her pain into music and art and watch her fans enjoy it. 

David 

The quiet ring in the beginning of this track tells us that our artist is calm now. She is quietly reflecting on her traumas in the first verse in a questioning way. She wonders now that her head is clear how much of it was real. She feels taken advantage of and knows that in the moment she would have given anything he asked of her. The choruses are soulful and life questioning in saying “Why do we run to the ones we do?/ I don’t belong to anyone.” She is screaming out begging to know why she runs to people that are bad for her whilst also having a breakthrough about self worth. Back into the second verse we begin again with “Oh, dark day” to signify that we’re going to again debrief the feelings that came with the relationship. Looking back on it not so fondly, she tells us that every chance her partner got he knocked her down from his own insecurity. Every bad word and action hit her quick, off guard, and hard. When she finally regained consciousness of her confidence and worth, she vowed to never give herself to him in that way ever again. The repetition of the chorus and the addition of the lyrics “I made you God ‘cause it was all/ That I knew how to do/ But I don’t belong to anyone” screams out that she saw him as this higher being but now she is free. The outro is an over and over repetition of wondering “Am I ever gon’ love again?” and one line of “Will you ever feel like a friend?” She doesn’t know where the wind will take her next and I can sense fear in her tone. Although she is proud to have found herself again and to be rid of this person, she is terrified that she will never feel a strong love and devotion like this again and parts of her still wants him in her life and to not completely close the door.