Album Review: Lorde

New Zealand born Ella Yelich-O’Connor, more commonly known by her stage name Lorde, has suddenly become a household name and is definitely being spoke of in all the right places. She’s like marmite. If you ask anyone their opinion on the songstress they will tell you they passionately hate her because she is a “carbon copy of Lana Del Rey” or that they adore her and her art. There is little in between. Lorde arrived with a splash as she became the only New Zealand born solo artist to have a number one in the US, and you don’t just achieve success like that for nothing, especially at the age of sixteen. “Royals” has been blasted on our radios and has crept its way onto charts in several countries because of its infectious and original sound. But does her album live up to the track the world has gone crazy for?

“”Don’t you think that it’s boring how people talk?” moves like silk into our ears as the songstress begins her tales about her ‘gang’ on the first track, “Tennis Courts”. Simplistic lyrics demonstrate her youth whilst mixed with poetic stanzas justifying why she absolutely deserves her record deal. The track’s beat picks up yet, remains perfectly harmonised with the teenager’s vocals creating a mind-numbly brilliant effect. Her music and lyrics seem to slide together and complement each other in a way not many can master. It appears this is a repeated theme throughout as “400 Lux” kicks in with very similar yet more upbeat tone. Lorde’s vocal range is emphasised as she strains high notes beautifully. This track is gorgeous. “Royals” follows as the teenager becomes addictive to us listeners and we fall in love with her style. She resembles the urban beats of Charli XCX with Lana Del Rey style class still intact, but her style still seems completely original. “Ribs” then sets us into a lucid dream-like trance as it becomes clear the singer has taken great inspiration from the XX when crafting her debut. The child-like lyrics promote her innocence, reminding us that she was only sixteen at the time the record was written. The album is impossible to pause so and it seems extremely promising that this inability to fault her efforts is going to continue.

As expected, it does as “Buzzcut Season”’s wintery atmosphere haunts us and sends shivers down our spine. As the track progresses, the tune speeds up and touches the singer’s meaningful words gorgeously. The singer rasps “But I live in a hologram with you” effortlessly and cements her place in the industry. Track six continues her flawlessness with “Team”, the livelier track dances into our ears and we can hear the passion in her voice. Lorde creates this perfect view of her city with her poetic words and forces her ideas of perfection into our brains with her alluring words. “Glory and Gore” echoes earlier tracks whilst the singer breathes her words onto the record. Every track is unmissable. Lorde slows things down again in “Still Sane” with her voice gracefully entwining around the tune. By now we are in a world created in our minds by the words the songstress penned and it seems too soon to stop. “White Teeth Teens” brings us near the close and the drumming sounds haunt us for weeks. Lorde craftily tampers with the pace and consistently changes the tempo to show us she is the one driving the album. “A World Alone” rounds off the album with a slowed, Maccabees like feel whilst constantly building in a tribal-like way. “People are talking” rings over the track as the piece seems a fitting ending to an album as exquisite as this.

She is certainly here to stay, how many people can say they’ve achieved this much by sixteen? Lorde is very much here to be taken seriously, as she should be, with an album as hauntingly beautiful as “Pure Heroine”.

Track List

1. Tennis Court
2. 400 Lux
3. Royals
4. Ribs
5. Buzzcut Season
6. Team
7. Glory And Gore
8. Still Sane
9. White Teeth Teens
10. A World Alone