Is being a Virgin as Cool as Being a BRAT? : A Review of Lorde’s Latest Studio Album

Brat: More Than an Album

BRAT was summer. BRAT was coming to terms with your suppressed desires, the hate you bore and the complicated friendships you were a part of. The fun, the ugly and the embarrassing. It was about the euphoria of partying into the light of early summer mornings and the walks of shame back home. Drug abuse, sex, and all other kinds of highs of life was what BRAT encompassed. It encouraged difficult conversations about fertility and friendship, revealing that fame doesn’t equate feelings getting spared or receiving grace.

Besides shaping a big majority of the summer 2024 trends and, arguably, vibes, Charli xcx’s sixth studio album BRAT created a long lasting — and ongoing— cultural phenomenon of “BRAT Summer”. In her Menton Times article dating september last year titled “Becoming Brat” Ema spoke on the impact BRAT Summer had on society saying: “Charli XCX reminded us, in her blunt and unhinged way, that we can be confident and vulnerable and there is in fact nothing wrong with our imperfect, complicated personalities.” 

This summer, however, following Charli xcx’s official declaration of the end of BRAT summer, a new era began. Although the target audience for this new “era” was the exact same as BRAT Summers, it could not even come close to the commercial success brat had achieved. 

Charli xcx and Lorde’s relationship has had complications which were publicly known and exploited by the mass media. The two artists have oftentimes been compared to each other due to their similar physical appearance and success in the mid 2010s music industry. While the intricate details of their relationship weren’t shared withthe public, the remix of Charli xcx’s Girl so Confusing which featured Lorde not only revealed the underlying hostility the two had towards each other but also “resolved” the conflict with the final lines of the song being: “Girl, girl, girl, girl // You know I ride for you, too// (It's so confusing-ing)”

As Lorde hadn’t released music since her 2021 album Solar Power, this feature was also regarded as her return to music, which meant that by the time she announced that she would be releasing Virgin everyone was already hyped for her comeback. Yet, despite this initial excitement, Virgin wasn't nearly as successful commercially as BRAT was, with some users even comparing it to Taylor Swift's widely hated and criticized album The Life of a Showgirl. 

But does this lack of commercial success have anything to do with the quality of Lorde’s Virgin, or is it simply a manifestation of the change of consumer preferences? 

Virgin: Thoughts

Virgin consists of eleven songs. The album was written and produced in 2023, around the same time as Brat. Lorde describes this album as her “rebirth,” discussing numerous themes and both regressing to the past and reflecting on the present. All the songs featured are not only content heavy but also in classic Lorde style, quite poetic. Hence why, analyzing them in a way that would do them justice would be impossible. However, I will try my best to present a very short rundown of the songs that stood out for me from the album and their main themes, just to have a better idea of Virgin as a whole. The selected songs are based on nothing more than my personal preference.

The opening track Hammer was first released as a single for the album, and is considered to be the most accurate embodiment of the album's main theme: self discovery and identity. Lorde talks about identity in all its forms, including gender identity when she says: “Some days, I'm a woman, some days, I'm a man, oh” . 

The second song of the album is What Was That, which, being the second single for the album, was highly criticized prior to the album's release. Arguably, some of the most criticized lyrics of the album are from What Was That. Some of the lyrics leading to heavy internet discourse were:

MDMA in the back garden, blow our pupils up

We kissed for hours straight, well, baby, what was that?

I remember saying then, "This is the best cigarette of my life"

Well, I want you just like that

Indio haze, we're in a sandstorm and it knocks me out

I didn't know then that you'd never be enough, oh

Since l was seventeen, I gave you everything

Now we wake from a dream, well, baby, what was that?

What struck many listeners was the clear allusion to Lorde’s early career, and the years of the release of her first album, Pure Heroine. More than the content, Lorde’s writing was criticized, with users being unhappy with the lack of imagery she integrated into the song. Users said they were not able to see Lorde taking MDMA, she wasn’t able to get through to them. 

In Shapeshifter Lorde discusses all the roles that have been projected onto her throughout her career and how she was able to adapt to all of them. She expresses her desire to simply “be herself” again, something that she no longer knows how to do.

Man of the Year is another song focusing on Lorde’s gender identity. Whether it's the “masculine” Fight Club reference in the line “You met me at a really strange time in my life”, or Lorde talking about her transformation saying: “My babe can't believe I've become someone else// Someone more like myself,”, Man of the Year is a composition of multiple aspects of Lorde’s gender identity and her coming to terms with it. The title of the song is an allusion to the GQ Man of the Year Awards which the singer says was an event she attended in 2023 which was, in part, the inspiration behind the song. This “rebirth of hers doesn’t come without concerns. She sings “Who's gon' love me like this?// Oh, who could give me lightness?” expressing her anxiety, and even desire to be accepted. 

Current Affairs is, in my opinion, one of the most powerful songs in the album. The song discusses feeling out of control, and being lost in the chaotic flow of life, holding an almost absent stance. 

Mama, I'm so scared

Don't know how to come back

Once I get out on the edge

He spit in my mouth like

He's sayin' a prayer

But now I'm cryin' on the phone

Swearing nothing's wrong

The contrast between the sexual imagery, yearning for parental support and coping all brought together in the pre-chorus embodies what “rebirth” feels like for Lorde. Trying to navigate through your identity while simultaneously, in its simplest form, continuing to live a life and cope with current affairs, accurately represents the complexity and weight of living  a multi dimensional life. 

Finally, David is, in my opinion, the ultimate closing track for an album like Virgin. The song's main theme is vulnerability, and gives the album an almost chronological feeling since it’s set in the present and connects the journey she has gone through with the destination where she has arrived. The lyrics: “At the Sunset Tower, you said, "Open your mouth"

I did// And what came spillin' out that day was the truth// If I'd had virginity, I would have given that too” present an almost separate attachment to truth, whether it’s her true identity or the truth about her relationship. It’s so important to her that the next thing up would be something she no longer even has. The pre chorus, “And once I could sing again, I swore I'd never lеt// Let myself sing again for you” sets the timeline of the song and is a reflection of her career. The time when she can sing again is today on Virgin, and is her declaring her autonomy and rebirth with this album. 

The Virality of Virgin, or the Lack There of

Despite the vulnerable themes BRAT covered and reflected on Charli’s personal relationships with herself and the world, the “hype” beat and persistent party and club references made them seem much less intimidating than they were. Virgin on the other hand presents similar issues in a much more rawer way. Charli wanted her listeners to recognize these issues as a part of life and learn to live with and embrace them, while Lorde is keen on emphasizing and focusing on them rather than brushing over them. 

Regardless of whether Virgin Summer happened or not, we should be thankful that it didn't have the impact Brat had because it would’ve been a very depressing summer to have to go through. Call it a recession indicator if you want, but themes of depression and sadness are no longer glamorized and consumed on the internet the way they were in the 2010s and early 2020s, and people are much more inclined to consuming hyper-pop and upbeat “party” music such as that of BRAT. Though there is an undeniable aspect of seasonal impacts on trends (sad girl autumn popularizing Taylor Swift’s albums Evermore and Folklore), we haven’t seen similar, and recent, examples of mainstream “sad”, not only lyrics but also beat wise,  music becoming as trendy as BRAT. Lorde’s rebirth, hopefully, is a happier and new chapter in her life, and we have had the chance to witness the emergence of it.

Photo Source: Erin Mc, flickr