Virgin by Lorde

Virgin, Lorde's fourth album, arrived on 27 June 2025 through Universal Music New Zealand and Republic, her last release for either before she parted ways with Universal. After the sun-bleached indie folk of Solar Power, she went back to electronics, producing alongside Jim-E Stack, with Dan Nigro and Buddy Ross also in the credits. The palette is all throbbing synths, electronic keys, breakbeats and fuzzed-out guitars, with an industrial grit critics were quick to point out.

The songs come out of a turbulent stretch: a breakup, a move to New York City and a fight with an eating disorder, all folded into a record about a kind of femininity she felt was missing from modern art. "What Was That" led the singles, followed by "Man of the Year" and "Hammer". Critics loved the writing and the singing, and it topped the charts at home, in Australia, Austria, Scotland and the UK, her first number one album in Britain.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.