Lorde Navigates Sexuality, Identity, and The Messiness of The Human Experience on 'Virgin': Album Review
- Mikaila Storrs
- Jul 2
- 3 min read
Stand-out tracks: "Hammer" "What Was That" "David"
Our favorites: "Shapeshifter" "Favourite Daughter" "Man Of The Year"
Release date: June 27, 2025
Label: Universal Music
For fans of: The 1975, Charli XCX, and Haim
On Virgin, her fourth studio album, Lorde reintroduces herself, stripped down, emotionally raw, and perhaps the most self-reflective she’s ever sounded. Described by the artist as her “rebirth,” Virgin is a visceral and honest exploration of sexuality, identity, and transformation. It’s not so much a reinvention as it is a reclamation, and across its deeply personal tracks, Lorde is more candid than ever before.
Lorde opens Virgin with “Hammer,” a track pulsing with sharp energy and unapologetic sensuality. Calling it “an ode to city life and horniness,” she wastes no time diving into the album’s themes of autonomy, desire, and self-possession. It’s bold, immediate, and charged with the kind of urgency that demands attention, a statement of power and presence that sets the tone for what’s to come.
“What Was That,” the first single of this era, follows with the emotional weight fans might recognize from Melodrama, but this time through a more grown-up lens. It sits in that uncomfortable middle space, after heartbreak, but before healing. “Do you know you're still with me / When I'm out with my friends?” she sings, perfectly capturing the disorienting feeling of trying to move on while someone still lingers in every corner of your life.
That emotional excavation continues in “Shapeshifter,” where Lorde unpacks the ways she’s bent herself to fit into relationships, romantic, social, and otherwise. It’s about the slow, sometimes painful realization in your mid-to-late twenties that you’ve spent years performing versions of yourself to be accepted. Self-awareness is potent, as is the desire to finally be seen as you truly are. That sense of reclamation expands on “Man Of The Year,” where she asks, “Who’s gon’ love me like this? / Oh, who could give me lightness?” It’s not a question steeped in loneliness, but in awe of her own growth. She’s learned to love herself deeply, perhaps for the first time, and crowns herself accordingly.
Family pressure and the ache for approval surface on one of the album’s most gutting moments of "Favourite Daughter" the lyrics. “’Cause I’m an actress, all of the medals I won for ya / Breaking my back just to be your favourite daughter” lands like a punch. Here, Lorde captures the years of emotional labor spent trying to be perfect, trying to earn love by being agreeable, accomplished, and easy to love. The pain isn’t loud, but it’s heavy and lasting. She brings a rare frankness to the subject of casual sex, especially from a female perspective. In “Casual Affairs” and “ClearBlue,” she explores the emotional weight of fleeting relationships: the freedom, the risk, the heartbreak. These aren’t just stories of desire; they’re reflections on how intimacy can feel liberating and lonely all at once.
Time, memory, and identity converge on “GRWM,” where she sings, “A grown woman in a baby tee.” The line feels both playful and profound, a metaphor for the blur between who we were and who we are now. Whether it’s about growing into herself or making peace with a younger version of her she once rejected, it’s a poignant look at the passage of time and the many selves we carry. That reflection turns darker in “Broken Glass,” where Lorde confronts her struggles with depression and her relationship with food. It’s some of her rawest writing to date, and it naturally leads into “If She Could See Me Now,” a track that pulls together all the pieces, good, bad, and in-between, to show how far she’s come.
The album closes with a final moment of clarity, tinged with anger and questioning in "David". “Was I just someone to dominate? / Worthy opponent/ flint to my blade,” she asks, confronting the power dynamics of a past relationship and the complicated reasons we’re drawn to certain people. There’s liberation in the ending, but also a question left hanging-will she ever let herself love like that again?
Virgin isn’t about tying things up neatly. It’s about showing the mess, the growth, the heartbreak, and the joy that come with becoming yourself. Lorde doesn’t present answers, just her truth.
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