Review: Lorde's Virgin (2025)

Growing Pains Never Sounded So Good

Rating: 4/5 Stars

Where Melodrama was a vivid, electric portrait of youthful excess and emotional upheaval, Virgin presents itself as a quieter, more contemplative exploration of growth and introspection. It is the sound of an artist who has moved beyond the theatrics of adolescence and is now willing to sit with complexity and vulnerability in its rawest form.

Melodrama was characterised by its cinematic production and the intensity of feeling that made it feel like a late-night confessional. In contrast, Virgin opts for subtlety and space, allowing sparse piano, delicate percussion, and layered vocals to create a soundscape both intimate and haunting. The production draws you inward rather than pushing you outward, inviting reflection rather than reaction.

Lorde’s lyricism has matured, navigating themes of identity, desire, and self-knowledge with a measured honesty. The narratives here are less about fleeting moments and more about enduring truths, the kind that come from lived experience and the gradual acceptance of one’s complexities. Tracks such as Crimson Veil and Sacred Wounds resonate with a quiet intensity, revealing emotional depths that are both personal and universal.

Among these, Favourite Daughter stands as the album’s most compelling moment. It is a profoundly honest and unflinching examination of expectation and selfhood, delivered with a starkness that is as painful as it is beautiful. The song’s rawness cuts through the album’s subdued textures, offering a moment of piercing clarity that lingers long after its final note.

Virgin is not an album of bold declarations or anthemic highs. Instead, it is a meditation on growth, resilience, and the nuances of maturity. It reflects an artist who has learned to embrace silence and subtlety as much as sound, and in doing so, has crafted a work that feels deeply personal yet resonant with a broad emotional truth.

Lorde’s Virgin is a masterful evolution; an album that balances vulnerability with strength and quiet reflection with emotional power. It marks a significant artistic maturation and confirms her place as one of the most insightful voices of her generation.