My Top 100 Albums: #93 - Lorde, ‘Pure Heroine’
93.
Lorde, ‘Pure Heroine’
Universal Music, 2013
Surely the best album ever written by a sixteen-year-old, Pure Heroine is a perceptive, otherworldly indie-pop masterpiece, a real triumph even when you overlook the juvenescence of its creator. Ella Yelich-O’Connor, aka Lorde, had broken into the public consciousness with the success of the single Royals in 2013, and sought to cultivate her newfound audience with this debut LP later that year, to great profit. Carly Rae Jepsen’s Emotion is often cited as the catalyst for a totally new philosophy of pop music in the latter half of the 2010s, but Pure Heroine is the album that laid the groundwork for that momentum shift towards a more introspective, self-assured and raw sound within the genre. The vast majority of chart pop in 2013 was over-produced and saccharine - contrast that with this self-conscious, humble and reflective offering and the importance of this album becomes clear. Six of the ten songs on this relatively short track listing were released as singles, such is the individual quality of the tunes on this record. The likes of Tennis Court, Royals, Buzzcut Season and Team were destined for the playlists of any modish teen in the autumn of 2013, but you could just as easily play this album from start to finish at any indie party and get away with it. Sure, this album does at times demonstrate a naivety that reflects its creator’s lack of experience, and can sometimes feel a bit unpolished, but the pure quality of its songwriting is on display for all to see.
Hidden Highlight: 400 Lux
Tennis Court
400 Lux
Royals
Ribs
Buzzcut Season
Team
Glory and Gore
Still Sane
White Teeth Teens
A World Alone