Like Haim, Lorde has taken a long break between albums. Her third effort, Solar Power, came out in 2021.

That folk pop record was a departure from her usual sound, and it was met with a lukewarm response both critically and commercially. I was one of the detractors, finding it a rather dull follow-up to 2017’s excellent Melodrama.

Now she’s back, having nursed the wounds of Solar Power‘s reception, with Virgin, an album that finds her back in the synth-pop groove of her early work.

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