Does Lorde Still Want to Be a Star? Our ‘Virgin’ Feelings

Popcast

The New York Times

Music Interviews, Music Commentary, Music

3.6 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 10 July 2025

⏱️ 59 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The beloved pop singer’s new album once again ponders whether being famous and obsessed over is all it’s cracked up to be.Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the New York Times Popcast, your Get Randy with me of music, news, and criticism.
0:07.5	I'm John Caramonica, a critic at the New York Times.
0:10.8	I'm Joe Coscarelli. I'm a reporter at the New York Times.
0:14.1	We are joined today by Hazel Sills.
0:17.8	Hazel is an editor at NPR Music.
0:21.2	Hazel, welcome to podcast.
0:22.9	Welcome back to Popcast.
0:24.5	It's been a minute.
0:26.0	Thank you for having me.
0:27.8	We're excited to talk to you about Lord.
0:30.2	This is a fascinating album full of lore.
0:34.6	It is messy and unwieldy in a way that I think actually every Lord album, at least to me,
0:42.0	after the debut is, it's just a different kind of mess and a different kind of unwieldiness
0:46.8	with a different level of success than the prior to albums. Virgin is the new album. It is her fourth album.
0:56.1	And to me, what I was most struck by is how much Lord, and by extension, all of us
1:04.3	are still wrestling with the shadow of a decade ago, wrestling with the shadow of royals, of pure heroin.
1:12.6	And this feels like maybe the most definitive break that we've had from the old lord,
1:21.1	or the original lord, trying to slough that off and find some new path.
1:27.0	Hazel, you also wrote about it. I reviewed the album.
1:29.2	Hazel, you also reviewed the album. What was your top line feeling when you finally got to listen to it
1:35.3	in full? I think my general feeling about the album is that it didn't feel like I was getting
1:42.1	the strongest version of Lord.
	...

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