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\n\tWhen a pop artist follows a specific release pattern over the course of their career, it\u2019s easy to assume that a new album and corresponding promotional cycle are all part of a pre-ordained plan, meant to deliver fresh art for more commerce at regular intervals. That\u2019s why, when 2025 began, a new Lorde album and tour felt like safe bets for the calendar year \u2014 considering that, since she was a teen prodigy from New Zealand, she had released a full-length every four years, followed by an extended live run and then a period relatively out of the spotlight, until she returned four years later. Her last album, Solar Power<\/em>, came out in 2021. We just knew<\/em> that this particular pop comet was due to re-enter our orbit soon enough.<\/p>\n \n\tBut artists do not create like clockwork, and behind the scenes, Lorde, now 28, was wondering not whether she would release a new album on schedule, but if she would release one at all. \u201cIn 2023 I thought for sure I didn\u2019t have any more music in me and all this was over,\u201d she wrote on Instagram two days before the release of her fourth album, Virgin<\/em>. <\/p>\n \n\tThe promotional campaign for this album has involved tales of a bitter breakup and body dysmorphia, creeping feelings of stage fright and questions about her gender identity. Instead of retreating from the intimate pressure points and personal changes that have defined her mid-twenties, she poured them into a new album, and is now hoisting them up for the world to see. One listen to Lorde\u2019s Virgin<\/em> confirms that it is by far the bravest album of her career.<\/p>\n \n\tYet repeated plays showcase the expertly crafted nuances of the project \u2014 which Lorde largely created with producer Jim-E Stack, and which was deeply informed by the concrete rhythms of New York City. Gone are the sun-kissed arrangements of Solar Power<\/em>, replaced by raw, brawny beats; Virgin<\/em> is dominated by drums, and sometimes the songs bend in service of their percussion more than Lorde\u2019s voice. <\/p>\n \n\tWhether she\u2019s singing about pain, enlightenment or their symbiotic relationship, however, Lorde remains an authoritative pop singer-songwriter, brimming with piercing lines and always delivering them with expressive care. The style and subjects may shift, but the fundamental, self-possessed talent does not.<\/p>\n \n\tVirgin<\/em> is a knowingly messy album, full of left-turn song structures, untamed physicality and giant rhetorical questions placed in small, hushed sequences. The path between albums three and four was not an easy one for Lorde, but that journey resulted in an artistic shake-up that\u2019s downright triumphant. Whether her next project is four years, four months or forty years away, Lorde remains a pop artist worth investing in, now and long-term.<\/p>\n \n\tBelow, see Billboard<\/em>\u2019s preliminary ranking of the 11 songs from Lorde\u2019s Virgin<\/em>.<\/p>\n