David Williams ’14
Lorde is the newest foreign pop star to burst onto the American scene. The huge hype for this 16-year-old singer-songwriter has been enormous, with one single debuting at number one on the Billboard charts in the US. Pure Heroine is a study in constant sound that emphasizes the few seconds of silence that occur in the album. The album is an ode to the anxiety of the transitions of teenage life and growing up to the responsibilities of life. However, this isn’t through a heavily auto-tuned voice with a guitar back tracking. Instead, this is the pure beat of a base drum and simple toms accompanied by the amazingly mature voice laid over. This simplistic formula is when Lorde is at her best, left to bring out her passion for the music in the tones of her voice and the versatility that she brings to the different tracks of the album.
The lust for the rich lifestyle of hip-hop and pop is broken down by the perspective of a teenager viewing the lifestyle from outside of the inner-city where it originated. The luxury of the lifestyle is rejected in the track “Royals”, while “Glory and Gore” embraces rap and the competitive and battling culture that it’s created between rappers. Ultimately, “Pure Heroine” is a deep examination of the experience of a teenager growing up and dealing with the explosion of fame, but it delivers in a way that hits at the heart (through the veins) and is more than pleasant on the ears.
5 Stars
hsctiger 