Lorde – Pure Heroine (2013)

September 28, 2014

It’s not that often that I usually listen to shit like this, but I burned this album when it first came out and it’s just one of those things that’s been stuck in my car since. My stereo broke a few months ago when I tried to spin a leaked copy of Swans’ To Be Kind (that’s what I get for pirating music, folks!*) but when my car went in recently to get a new starter motor all the electronics were reset, and it freed the stuck Swans disc, allowing me to return to my awful car listening. I found this Lorde album lodged conspicuously behind a copy of Dr. Dre’s 2001, and all the memories and mediocre pop music came flooding back. The mirth!

*I bought the 2xLP, and have nearly every other Swans record in existence, before you fucking judge me for doing illegals 😉

Most of you probably know Lorde for being a silly out-spoken 17-year-old who talks a lot of shit about stuff that she actually doesn’t know anything about (kinda like me, only I’m 25). Take away her daftly over-opinionated, sensationalist media-baiting crap, and she’s a fairly talented girl with, no doubt, a long future in music ahead of her. Pure Heroine is a fairly minimal pop record, led entirely by Lorde’s unusual vocal. It kinda sounds like if Lana Del Ray got her head outta her arse, stopped trying to sing like a man, and employed Gary Numan to do all her backing tracks.

As is normally always the case with up-and-coming artists signed to major labels, one can’t help but speculate how different this would sound without massive boardroom pressure and a most-likely insanely huge production budget. And for that reason, the link below is of a live performance from Lorde, which I believe does her more justice than any of the tracks on this record. All in all, it’s not a bad CD, as far as mass produced pop goes, but it could be a lot worse. Favourite tracks: “Tennis Court”, “Glory & Gore”, “White Teeth Teens”.