Album Anniversaries: Lorde Put Pure Crack in ‘Pure Heroine’

The iconic Kiwi pop star had to start somewhere, and her unapologetically juvenile debut has 20-something-year-old teenagers everywhere mourning their youth with the tenth jubilee of Pure Heroine. 

Written by Adam Cherian

Photo courtesy of Paul R. Giunta/Getty Images

Blooming synths evoke the sentimental feelings of fleeting youth in “Ribs” — immature in its themes, the classic pop track reminisces on a time when the world looked so big. Imagine being the wallflower at a college house party, intoxicated off gas station fireball shooters and watching the cheap Amazon LED lights drunkenly spin as the droning vocals of Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O'Connor (a.k.a. Lorde) start to play in the background; “It drives you crazy getting old,” loops in your head like you had eight too many shots. The childish wonder of things like alcohol and kickbacks, along with insightful writing, shape the sound of the now (brace yourself) decade-old Pure Heroine.

Bursting onto the scene, freshly 16, the New Zealand native released her hit single “Royals” in 2012 along with her EP The Love Club on Soundcloud, and so began her impressive career. The minimal production and highly jaded lyrics enamored youths across the globe; finally, someone who understands Gen Z’s uniquely cynical worldview. The song criticizes the glamorous lies of fame, even acting as a slight diss to indie legend Lana Del Rey and her romanticized view of opulence and abuse. The success of “Royals” led to three more radio singles for the burgeoning star including “Team,” a scintillatingly synthy single that takes on the same ideas as “Royals.” However, “Team” provides a hopeful view with solidarity and friendship, proclaiming, “and you know, we’re on each other's team.”

Photo courtesy of Clara Balzary

Lorde blessed the world on Sept. 27, 2013 with Pure Heroine. The title being an edgy double entendre referencing both the central theme of being a brave outsider and the opioid substance. Drugs act as a motif throughout her discography, with Lorde herself saying her debut was inspired by alcohol (admittedly, a very teenage thing to do). Boozy self-discovery finds itself throughout the record in multiple tracks, emphasizing Lorde’s obsession with the ritualistic teenage tradition. The aforementioned “Ribs” is the inebriated over-thinker’s anthem. As a maudlin Lorde fears growing up while at a party, the electric instrumental pulses like a heartbeat or a particularly nasty hangover headache. Alcoholic-inspired track “400 Lux” depicts a cute story about driving to a party with her puppy love partner: “You pick me up and take me home again / Head out the window again / We're hollow like the bottles that we drain.”

Youth centers itself throughout the record. The world through the eyes of a 16-year-old may be banal and uninformed to most (check X for the opinions of teenagers and you will understand), but Lorde sets herself apart with her pen and a genuinely profound outlook on young adulthood. The glimpse into the shallowness of the music industry off second single “Tennis Court” exemplifies her style of youthful maturity. Only a fetus in the entertainment world, the ingenue realizes that all that glitters isn’t pure gold; “And I am / Only as young as the minute is, full of it / Getting pumped up on the little bright things I bought / But I know they'll never own me (Yeah).” 

Social commentary once again finds itself in the song “Glory and Gore,” where the singer criticizes the obsession with celebrity culture and violence, likening it to gladiators. A telling comparison — gladiators were prisoners who were given celebrity status for entertaining crowds with performative violence, much like how the modern-day famous are encouraged with the attention given to their sins and scandals. Lorde doesn’t absolve herself from it, however: “Glory and gore go hand in hand / That's why we're making headlines.” Violence also makes itself present in the track “Buzzcut Season,” in which Lorde points out the normalized savagery that particularly young people live with. “Explosions on TV / And all the girls with heads inside a dream / So now we live beside the pool / Where everything is good” resonates with Gen Z folk — school shootings on the news with the next channel being football feels like an everyday occurrence.

Photo courtesy of Kirk Hargreaves

Young people, especially Gen Z, hold Pure Heroine in high regard. Within the decade of its release, the pop music landscape completely shifted. Gone are the days of maximalist party anthems and intentionally shallow club bangers filling the radio; minimalist hip-hop/trip-hop inspired production and clever, insightful writing dominate the pophead sphere now. Billie Eilish, Troye Sivan, and a plethora of other artists all owe their sound to the fearless adolescent  who decided to go against the grain and make an album that sounded different from mainstream radio music at the time. Though Lorde left this sort of sound behind on future records Melodrama and Solar Power, the effects of Pure Heroine rush through the veins of pop music like an intravenous hit of the drug itself.