Pop phenomenon: New Zealand’s Billie Eilish: Lorde with a new album “Virgin”

Lorde is considered a New Zealand counterpart to Billie Eilish and Charli XCX. A musical phenomenon – keen to experiment, avant -garde and distinctive. Now the 28-year-old exceptional artist is back with her fourth studio album after four years. “Virgin” is probably the most personal work of the singer, who is known for her profound texts and her eccentric style of music – a mixture of pop, electrical and alternative.

This is followed by the celebrated predecessors who appeared every four years: “Pure Heroine” (2013), “Melodrama” (2017) and “Solar Power” (2021). The title of the Staccato-based opening track from “Virgin” reveals where the trip is going this time: “Hammer”.

Provocative and unconventional

“An ode to city life and lust” is the song, said Lorde in advance of the publication. She wrote him together with producer Jim-e Stack. “The asphalt is hot, my mercury is increasing. I don’t know if it is love or ovulation,” she sings in an atmospheric voice and then alludes to her understanding of gender: “On some days I am a woman, on some days I am a man.”

The video is only activated on YouTube from the age of 18: Lorde can be seen naked in a hammock and can be tattooed in the forest. The album cover is also rather unconventional: it shows a blue X -ray, on which a pelvis with a belt buckle, a zip and a spiral can be seen.

The magazine “Billboard” once described her unmistakable voice as “dynamic, smoky and dominated”. But Lordes Cometable Rising is also thanks to her compositional talent and ability to repeatedly challenge the norms of mainstream pop music.

Neurological phenomenon: see tones

Recurring topics are the complex emotions of a young person and the path to self -discovery. The “New York Times” celebrated her as a “pop wonderkind” in 2017 and wrote that her texts would give an unusual shine to the obviously banal snapshots of the suburban tank existence.

At the time, she also revealed to the US sheet that she was born with a neurological phenomenon called Sound Color Synesthesia: When she hears certain notes and tones, she sees corresponding colors. It is a very special kind of perception in which different senses are connected.

Eating disorders and depression

In interviews, she also speaks openly about an eating disorder and depression that she has plagued in recent years. In the meantime, however, she has managed to overcome these problems, she told the cultural magazine “Document Journal”. Today she eats what she feels like. “The new album is a by -product of this process in which I have arrived in my body and feel my strength,” she said.

At the New York Met Gala, known for extravagant red carpet appearances, she has been presenting itself as a fashion icon for years. Lordes outfits make headlines and were also worth the “Vogue” of its own story – such as their white silk -two -part and extravagant headdress from 2021.

Two Grammys already as a teenager

Born in Auckland as Ella Yelich-O’Connor in Auckland, she published her debut album in 2013 as a teenager. Like Billie Eilish, she partially wrote her songs in their parents’ home. Within six months, “Pure Heroine” sold over a million times worldwide, the song “Royals” from the album climbed to first place on the Billboard Hot 100 charts. At the age of 16 she was one of the youngest artists who landed a number a single single in the USA. The work brought her two Grammys in 2014.

“Hammer” is the third decoupling from “Virgin” after “What was that” and “Man of the Year”. The former song deals with a painful separation, but also the new beginning afterwards – and reached first place on Spotify in the USA. The second decoupling is again about gender identity and self -discovery. “” Man of the Year ” – a gift from my deepest inner. The song that I am most proud of” Virgin “, wrote Lorde on social media.

“The album is impetuous, wild and physical,” celebrated the music magazine “Rolling Stone” the work and raved, Lorde revealed on it “her” profound singing of all time “. She hired in the cover story: “There will be a lot of people who no longer hold me for a good girl, a good woman. That is over.” For other fans, on the other hand, she will finally have reached “Virgin” with herself. “I will be where you always hoped that I would be at some point.”