10 Of The Most Lorde-Sounding Lyrics On ‘Virgin’
NYLON breaks down the 10 most Lorde-sounding lyrics on 'Virgin' from tracks “If She Could See Me Now," "GRWM," "David," “Current Affairs," and more.
The wait for new Lorde music is over. On June 27, the New Zealand pop star dropped her fourth album Virgin, a deceptively deep examination of the four years since 2021’s Solar Power. For its cover, the singer used an ultrasound of her lower half in jeans, a stirring image hinting at the world explored over the record’s 11 tracks.
With producers Jim-E Stack, Dan Nigro, and Buddy Ross, Lorde bathes in synths and experimental swings, peeling back layers to share bold ideas about sexuality, adolescence, image, and heartbreak. And similar to her last three albums, Virgin is filled with the unique brand of poetic imagery, razor-sharp one-liners, and dreamy coming-of-age lyricism she’s become known for.
Of course, Ella Yelich-O’Connor is growing, but her lens and source material remains unchanged, as evidenced by the Joan Didion quote in her Instagram bio: “The themes are always the same. A return to innocence, the mysteries of the blood, an itch for the transcendental.”
Here are 10 of the most Lorde-sounding lyrics on Virgin.
1. I pick a song and I listen to it / Until it's just a piece of music / And everything else falls away - “If She Could See Me Now”
The inherent power of song is a common theme in Lorde’s discography, from bullet-worthy bops on Melodrama’s “Perfect Places” to “the music you loved at 16” on Solar Power. This time, the singer uses it to heal from heartbreak, finding strength in repeating the same tune until meaning is lost. (Perhaps it was “Suga Suga” by Baby Bash, sampled in the first verse.)
2. Everyone that I’ve slept with / All the metal that I’ve messaged / If I’m fine without it, why can’t I stop - “Shapeshifter”
Between breathy confessions and reverb-ed strings, Lorde reconsiders no-labels hookups and the titles she’s adopted to feel desired. In classic Ella fashion, she prescribes elemental qualities to late-night texts — the aforementioned “metal” — and wonders if she’s as “unaffected” as she pretends to be.
3. I made you God 'cause it was all / That I knew how to do - “David”
As Virgin’s sparse and glitchy closer, “David” ends the album on a solemn but hopeful note. The singer may not know if she’ll love again, but she knows where she went wrong. Honorable mention goes to the track’s self-referential moment: “Pure heroine mistaken for featherweight”
4. You tasted my underwear / I knew we were f*cked - “Current Affairs”
With a raunchy Dexta Daps sample, Lorde oscillates between sexy and stranded, using the world’s turbulence as a scapegoat for an intense relationship doomed from the start.
5. Maybe you'll finally know who you wanna be / A grown woman in a baby tee - “GRWM”
In a way, “GRWM” — a portmanteau for “grown woman” — feels like a spiritual successor to “Secrets from a Girl (Who’s Seen it All).” Has a line ever been more tailor-made for summertime IG photo dumps?
6. I burn and I sing and I scheme and I dance / Somedays I’m a woman, some days I’m a man - “Hammer”
No lyric sums up this era’s gender f*ckery like this confident proclamation on Virgin’s thrashing opening track.
7. You had a brother, I look like him / You told us as kids / "He diеd of a broken heart" - “Favourite Daughter”
The crippling weight of being the prodigal daughter never sounded so bouncy. This candid confrontation of the singer’s relationship with her mom is filled with sneakily biting one-liners, like this reference to Lorde’s resemblance to her late uncle.
8. Mystique is dead, last year was bad / I let myself get sucked in by arithmetic - “Broken Glass”
With funky production and irresistible flow, the singer continues the narrative she started on Charli XCX’s “Girl So Confusing” remix, lyrically unpacking her body-image issues and writing off insecurities as straightforward mathematics.
9. After the ecstasy, testing for pregnancy, praying in MP3 / I'm scared to let you see into the whole machine, leave it all on the field - “Clearblue”
Named after a pregnancy test brand, this raw and vocoder-drenched ballad turns the implications of unprotected sex into poetry.
10. Wide hips, soft lips, my mama's trauma / Since '96, been looking for a grown woman - “GRWM”
Throughout her discography, Lorde continually evaluates her relationship to getting older. Still, this witty lyric seems to mark an epiphany: With age comes wisdom, though one never feels fully grown.
