ALBUM REVIEW – Lorde’s new album “VIRGIN” leaves fans yearning to attend her 2026 concerts.
Preceded by singles “What Was That” and “Man Of The Year”, Lorde’s new album “Virgin” has accumulated over 273 million streams, along with 16 million streams on its first day on Spotify.
Released in June of 2025, “Virgin” is a raw exploration of self femininity and the complexities of modern life “VIRGIN”, as it has the two preceding songs in it, holds 11 songs in total, characterized by honesty and vulnerability, and as Lorde describes the album itself, “THE COLOUR OF THE ALBUM IS CLEAR. LIKE BATHWATER, WINDOWS, ICE, SPIT. FULL TRANSPARENCY.”
In the album’s opener, “HAMMER”, Lorde uses her deep voice and vocals to add to the drum and piano, which sets up the album’s theme of a deep connection.“HAMMER” discusses the feeling of being free and ovulating while walking around New York City. It goes with the album’s sense and covers an X-ray of a pelvis with an IUD.
After starting her album with a “hammering”, powerful song, she continues with one of the preceding songs, “WHAT WAS THAT”, a song about the aftermath of an intense drug-fueled relationship and the subsequent breakup. The lyrics loop through feelings of missing the good and bad of the relationship. The whole song questions the nature of the intense connections that can happen after a passionate romance. This album discusses a lot of deep emotions that lie within this song.
Her whole album “Virgin” was made as an intense, personal, and introspective project that explored themes of femininity, rebirth, and the reclamation of self, in the light of a breakup, as well as a reevaluation of her gender expression. The Daily Lobo describes the album as, “It’s interesting; it is as naked as a human can be, even without the flesh, and yet it is distinctly non-sexual.”
Moreso, her song “MAN OF THE YEAR” is one of the more popular ones off the album. Her strong vocals, along with drums, the bass guitar, cello, and piano, make it very powerful. It embraces her evolving gender identity and self-discovery. The lyrics reflect a shift in identity, which acknowledges the sense of being “both a man and a woman” and learning how to be accepted. The song itself, having been streamed 35,472,473 times on Spotify since its release on May 29, 2025, remains very popular amongst her albums.
Her last song in the album, and maybe by far the greatest, “DAVID”, is a lyrical and acoustic masterpiece, with vocals and electric guitar to make it a song full of emotion. It explores themes of power dynamics, liberation, and identity, possibly inspired by her relationship with Justin Warren. This song is a possible reference to a statue, but Lorde leaves the listeners to determine what the song means to them.an The song itself suggests a detachment from someone older, like a “god” in their life, which is a turning point in her finding her own identity. It is her 5th most played song, overtaking some of her old hits such as “Supercut” and “Royals”.
Lorde has now planned her tour in Australia and New Zealand in February of 2026 as part of her “Ultrasound World Tour”, her most recent one since August of 2023. Fans are spiraling to attend this tour, and even though it is far away, many will travel multiple hours to get there. Let’s see if it lives up to its expectations.
