Estelle Clifford: Lorde - Virgin

Lorde has described her fourth album as her rebirth. 

‘Virgin’ is her attempt to make a document that reflected her femininity, which she described as “raw, primal, innocent, elegant, openhearted, spiritual, masc”. 

It deals with themes of gender identity, body image, and mental health, a more introspective album than its predecessor ‘Solar Power’. 

Estelle Clifford joined Jack Tame to share her thoughts on the album. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Teams podcast
from News Talks at B.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
I might have been for again beat you feel like
I don't have the answers.

Speaker 3 (00:19):
This piece of madness over aheads lady carry me. It

(00:43):
is the first track on her brand new album, dropped yesterday.
Virgin is the name of the album of Stelle Clifford,
our music reviewer, has been keenly anticipating the release and
has shut herself away from the world, I hope so
that you can listen to it. And she's with this
this morning.

Speaker 2 (00:59):
Hey oho, and that's kind of one of those albums
you need to take a beat. Just yeah, everything that
is going on in Virgin. I don't know if you
remember when she released Mellow Drama. The way she released
it was suddenly I remember late one night, I was
out searching for the green lights around Auckland City that
apparently pops up and once you've found them, you'd get

(01:20):
to hear like the full first track from that album,
and you're like, she just she kind of caused a frenzy,
which is exactly what she's managed to do with that
album as well. So she kind of suddenly out of nowhere,
like we haven't. She's been keeping pretty low key for
four years, and suddenly there's this new song and she's like, hey, everyone,
meet me at this park in New York, and so

(01:40):
of course everybody goes to the point where police end
up sending people home, and then she just does that
kind of random lawd dancing while performing to her new
big single, and it's everywhere over social media. So suddenly
it seems quite easy in such a catchy way to
go hello, there's some new music coming from the wood
and really create that hype around it, exactly like green Light,

(02:02):
and I think it sort of says a lot for
how Virgin does have similarities to her melodrama album in
its musicality and context, so Solar Power that came out
in twenty one, very She'll leave Me Alone, I'm at
the beach vibes that would have been in the public
eye too much that has gone part that we're not

(02:23):
there anymore. We are back either on the dance floor
just letting go and releasing our feelings because it is
all in this album and something I've really enjoyed with
her growing storytelling and writing. This one is very personal.
So all the stories and all the connection to the
music are from her own personal experience and what she's

(02:46):
been going through. As you do when you sort of
hit that mid twenties into your late twenties, that happens.
Relationships change, you try new things, you go different places,
and they all have an effect on who you are
as a person. So she's used that, you know, this
is I think sometimes she's written music from a perspective
or like a dream kind of sequence of what might happen,

(03:07):
or you know, like yeah, observation that sort of from
the sideline, as opposed to we're well and truly in
where she's at. There's been obviously she's had a lot
of chats around how she's had some real issues with
her own body image, having issues, eating disorder, stuff that
she's gone through, and so writing all that kind of

(03:31):
angsty stuff that she's working through and releasing ours in
this thrial cathartic way, and her music is just exciting
to hear. It's raw and it's angsty, it's still got
that real quirky you know how, like you think you
know where a song is going, and then Lord always
manages to do kind of like this left turn on something,
whether it's the malady or the way that the percussion

(03:53):
comes in quite heavy drums percussion. Throughout this album you
do get some soft stuffle with but there's a couple
of ballads in here, but they still have that build
that she does with the crescendo, and I like in
an interview she called it her Bravardo trying out a
bit of her masculine size, Like what is it to

(04:13):
just be like it doesn't matter. I'm not buying into this.
Women have to be in a box of what their
size is or how they judge themselves. Like what if
I did feel manly for a change, I wanted to
have that confidence, I suppose. Yeah, nothing understated in this album.

Speaker 3 (04:30):
No, it's good. I love that she just goes in
a different direction because she kind of did that like
with the last one with Melodrama after Pure Hero and
she kind of, you know, went on another complete di
I think good on her, like she should.

Speaker 2 (04:41):
Yeah, growing, and I think her fans grow with her
as opposed to go and all want the same thing
you did when you were sixteen exactly, We're okay, Like
she's done that really well, Like it's okay to evolve
and grow as a person. So she takes her fans
with her as opposed to everyone craving for this other
thing she does. She worked with a different producer, Jimmy Stack,

(05:02):
and I think that's been a good challenge for her.
He questioned her and he things around and and she
went with it and worked with that. I think she's
worked with Joel for Jack and anton Off for quite
a few albums. And I think just having that refresh
of someone else looking at your music, she's like, I've

(05:22):
got to follow my instincts here and just have a
little go at something else. And I think that challenge
means she's pushed herself in wanting to tell these stories
really great phrasing her lyrics like the one in Hammer,
I'm ready to feel like I don't have the answers.
There's piece of the madness over our heads that is
becoming an adult okay, Like do we all go when

(05:42):
we go?

Speaker 1 (05:43):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (05:43):
Yeah, I know I'm an adult now, Like we're all
just faking it, aren't we?

Speaker 3 (05:46):
Like, I mean she's always been a poet, like her
lyrics are amazing. Yeah, yeah, I think I think she's incredible. Yeah, great,
sounds really interesting. But I think I'm gonna have to
find a moment and really like lock myself off so
I can have a good listen. So what did you
give Virgil?

Speaker 2 (06:00):
This is a ten out of ten for me. I
think she's really done a great job. It's a great
A shape shifter is going to take you out. You'll
love the catchy. There's a percussion rep and it's dominated
by drums and really about transforming and growing and evolving.
It's good.

Speaker 3 (06:18):
Yeah, oh so good. All right, really looking forward to this.
Thanks so much to Stelle. We really appreciate it, Stale Clifford.
She had been, of course desperately anticipating this album, but
still she's only had twenty four hours to give it
a good listen. Ten out of ten for Lord's Virgin
sounds like it was well worth a listen, So we
will have a listen to one of those tracks in
a couple of minutes.

Speaker 1 (06:37):
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