As she has every four years since 2013, Lorde returned with a new album this summer: Virgin, her fourth LP, and first since 2021’s lukewarmly received Solar Power.
Virgin, released on June 27, follows not only May’s Billboard Hot 100 top 40-debuting lead single “What Was That” — her first song to reach the chart region since 2017 — but also an appearance on Charli xcx’s culture-conquering “Girl, So Confusing” remix in 2024. This week, the set bows at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 with 71,000 units moved, according to Luminate — both improvements on the first-week performance of Solar Power four years earlier.
What accounts for the Lorde bounce-back? And will she ever return to the chart’s top spot, which she first reached two album cycles earlier? Billboard staffers discuss these questions and more below.
1. Lorde’s Virgin debuts at No. 2 with 71,000 equivalent album units moved. On a scale from 1-10, how excited do you think Lorde and her team are about that opening performance?
Hannah Dailey: I would give it an 8! It’s very impressive that she outdid her last album by so much and proved that she still has room to grow this many years into her career. I also think that her team nailed the rollout plan, from the fan events — including the “What Was That” music video — to Lorde’s return to social media. The success of this album probably feels really validating after all that hard work there.
Kyle Denis: For an album that’s the follow-up to her most divisive set — and also boasts a lead single that barely scraped the top 40 — I’d imagine Lorde and her team are pretty satisfied with this opening performance. I’ll go with a 7.5.
Jason Lipshutz: A 7. Lorde’s first album in four years was preceded by plenty of pop-blog buzz but no major comeback single or viral hit, calling into question what type of commercial performance Virgin would earn when offered to the general public. A No. 2 debut, with a greater equivalent album units total than 2021’s Solar Power, is an unequivocal win for Lorde, and points to her continued appeal as a career pop artist whose work is digested in full-length statements. After scoring a smash with her debut single, “Royals,” Lorde has transcended the need for new hits for listeners to invest in her album, as the performance of Virgin proves once again.
Andrew Unterberger: A 7 feels right. It’s a nice rebound from the relative underperformance of Solar Power, and obviously it’d have to be a blockbuster beyond what Lorde had ever managed previously to even have a shot at dethroning Morgan Wallen this week. Still, I wonder if her team had maybe hoped just a little for an opening number a little more within range of six digits — given the momentum that she was riding coming into this era, it didn’t seem impossible. But this bow should still be more than acceptable for all involved.
Christine Werthman: Virgin scored higher than Solar Power in both units and chart placement, so I’d be at an 8 if I were on Lorde’s team. I’m not going to 10 because, while I wouldn’t anticipate Morgan Wallen numbers for Lorde, I’d think that a four-year album gap and a fervent fan base would’ve helped put a bit more distance between her and Benson Boone, a relatively new artist who got to No. 2 with 61,000 equivalent album units moved just a week earlier. Virgin also trails Melodrama’s debut by about 38,000 units, so it takes the wind out of the sails slightly. But it’s still a strong showing, hence the 8.
2. Both numbers are up from the debut of Lorde’s prior set, 2021’s Solar Power, which launched at No. 5 with 56,000 units. What do you think the biggest reason is behind the improved performance?
Hannah Dailey: Lorde has said it herself that Solar Power wasn’t really “her.” It’s a beautiful album, but I think fans could sense that it was missing a certain characteristic intensity and edge associated with Lorde that finally reappeared on Virgin. This album just felt more authentic from the beginning, and I bet it won back many of the Pure Heroine and Melodrama fans who tapped out a bit during the Solar Power years.
Kyle Denis: Generally, fans prefer Jim-E Stack’s moody synths over Jack Antonoff’s Solar Power guitars. Couple that with her post-“Girl, So Confusing” momentum and her Bratchella co-sign, you’re looking at natural anticipation that wasn’t kneecapped by a left-field sound.
Jason Lipshutz: I will forever defend Solar Power as an underrated entry in Lorde’s catalog, but it’s hard to argue that her third album resonated with anyone outside of the diehards. Virgin, on the other hand, arrives following a renewal in Lorde’s cultural cache thanks to the “Girl, So Confusing” remix with Charli xcx, as well as stronger reviews than Virgin and a semi-return to the aesthetic of 2017’s Melodrama, her last commercially successful project. The fact that Lorde played theaters on the Solar Power Tour, and leveled back up to arenas for the upcoming Virgin Tour, demonstrates how much more excitement there is around this album than her last one, as does the stronger chart debut this week.
Andrew Unterberger: It’s just fits a little neater inside the box of what Lorde fans want from a Lorde album. Which isn’t to say she played it safe with Virgin — whose lyrical focus is arguably more intensely personal and occasionally uncomfortable than she’s ever been — but that in itself is just a little more Lorde-fan-friendly a proposition than a set of relatively chill songs about sunning on the beach and getting baked at the nail salon. Throw in a whole lot of extremely emotional synths, and the Ellaheads were certainly eating right on this one.
Christine Werthman: Wild idea: because the music is better on Virgin. I think I only managed to listen to Solar Power once all the way through. I know Lorde was in her folksy, beach-party zone, but that album made me want to hide her acoustic guitar and stay indoors. I’m very glad she plugged back in.
3. While the set excels on the Billboard 200 this week, its presence on the Billboard Hot 100 is rather minimal — lead single “What Was That” is the only track from it to make the chart, re-entering at No. 85 after previously debuting at No. 36 and spending just three weeks on the listing. Why do you think the set has had trouble making much of a Hot 100 impact?
Hannah Dailey: I think that Virgin, as a whole, is very much an album that grows on you slowly. I personally love it more and more every time I listen to it. With that in mind, it makes sense that the individual songs on the record would take more time to fully connect with listeners.
That in itself is also a hallmark of Lorde’s career, though. Melodrama’s “Supercut” never charted, but fans and even casual listeners can agree that it has gradually become one of her most quintessential pieces of music over the years. The same goes for Pure Heroine’s “Ribs,” another slow burn that was a fan-favorite deep cut long before it ever debuted on the Hot 100 in May of this year.
Kyle Denis: Outside of “Royals” and “Team” (which benefitted from the afterglow of “Royals”), Lorde has never been an artist who churns out Hot 100 smashes. Her audience tends to consume her albums as complete sets as opposed to cherry-picking their favorites for their playlists. Even Melodrama, her most universally renowned LP, only sent three of its songs to the Hot 100, and just “Green Light” hit the top half of the chart (No. 19).
Between Morgan Wallen clogging the chart and 2024 hits still hanging on, I’m not entirely surprised that heady, non-radio-friendly Lorde album tracks didn’t make the Hot 100 this week.
Jason Lipshutz: Will Lorde ever have another huge pop hit? Maybe. Will she continue to perform to large audiences if she doesn’t? Probably. More than a decade after “Royals,” Lorde has entered an enviable position of career pop artist whose wins are not tethered to Hot 100 metrics — and as such, she can craft her full-lengths without a whiff of radio bait. Most of the best songs on Virgin do not abide by straightforward verse-chorus structures or rely upon TikTok-ready melodies, which makes the album a refreshing curveball in modern pop. It’s not surprising that songs like “Man of the Year,” “Hammer,” “David” or “Clearblue” have had trouble streaking onto the Hot 100… but then again, you never know which great Lorde is going to belatedly take off online, as “Ribs” recently showed.
Andrew Unterberger: I don’t have a great answer to this, to be honest. No, Lorde has never been a singles artist — not since Pure Heroine anyway — but “What Was That” felt like maybe her best-fitting, best-timed, most-accessible single since that debut LP, and the early response to it suggested that listeners agreed. But it faded commercially much, much faster than I expected, and I still struggle to understand why. Maybe I’ll just blame the cover art.
Christine Werthman: This album is less Solar Power and more Melodrama, her only album to reach No. 1, but it just doesn’t hit in the same way. Some of the new songs sound like outtakes from her 2017 smash, and many are lyrically stuffed, prioritizing words over hooks. Also, in a world where the top 10 of the Hot 100 has Alex Warren at No. 1, yet again, Morgan Wallen occupying three slots and the average weeks-on-chart for a song clocking in at 30, it’s not surprising that Lorde’s return to synths isn’t breaking through on a bigger level.
4. While not generating much in the way of hits, Virgin has drawn both better first-week numbers and generally stronger reviews than its predecessor. Do you think the album will end up being a major part of her artistic legacy, or is it too early to tell?
Hannah Dailey: For me, the defining element of Lorde’s pop artistry is that her songs will always make you think. There’s really no such thing as easy listening when it comes to her discography; every lyric is so full of meaning and emotion, and her songs rely on fans to pay close attention in a way that most other pop music doesn’t.
Virgin is the epitome of this quality, in my opinion. The subjects and imagery she touches on – the discordance between mind and body, inherited traumas and desires, the innate ugliness of womanhood — are more complex and intense than anything she’s ever written about before. So with that in mind, I do think it will serve as an essential text through which we see and understand Lorde as a songwriter and artist.
Kyle Denis: It’s not even been a month, so it’s probably too early to say anything about what Virgin means for Lorde’s legacy. But, for me, Virgin yet again proves that Lorde is the mouthpiece of my generation. Just as her last three albums generally marked moments of emotional and mental maturation for Zillennials and early Gen Z, so too does Virgin in its gender-expansive exploration of mid-20s reinvention and self-discovery.
Jason Lipshutz: From a big-picture perspective, Virgin serves as a sonic and critical course correction for Lorde, as well as her first truly adult album, an ode to late-twenties experiences and uncertainties that carries a newfound maturity and self-awareness. A physical album with a heavy focus on percussion and lack of major-key hooks, Virgin is both propulsive and hypnotic, and feels like the right type of evolution for an artist who somewhat lost her way on her last project. We’ll see where she goes from here — more than likely, in four years! — but right now, Virgin already looks like an indispensable piece of her career arc.
Andrew Unterberger: I think it’s already a pretty important album — and overall album era — in terms of cementing Lorde as one of the most beloved and influential pop artists of her generation, and someone without whom this decade’s crop of ascendant singer-songwriters would look very different. And I think eventually it’ll also simply be looked at as one of her strongest works.
Christine Werthman: It’s early, but it’s safe to say this will be an important chapter in her artistic legacy. Virgin is incredibly personal, with Lorde covering everything from a breakup to gender fluidity in these 11 songs. The music itself might not be that remarkable, nor will it be remembered for big hits, but it will likely be revered for taking big emotional swings.
5. Lorde topped the Billboard 200 for the first (and to date only) time in 2017 with Melodrama — do you think she’ll get another No. 1 on the chart at some point in her career?
Hannah Dailey: I think the jump in sales from Solar Power to Virgin show that an eventual No. 1 album is still very much within reach for Lorde. And as a fan, I just know that she still has an album full of mind-bending dance-pop bangers left in her – it’s up to her to decide when the right time will be to make it.
Kyle Denis: Definitely. She’s never debuted outside of the top five, and she appears to be on an upward trajectory with Virgin. With a buzzier lead single and the right timing, a No. 1 will always be within reach for Lorde.
Jason Lipshutz: For sure — she was one spot away this week, and ran into a Morgan Wallen behemoth! And if a future project does swerve toward more commercial territory with a bonafide hit single, the sky’s the limit. See you in 2029 (or, hopefully, sooner than that)!
Andrew Unterberger: It’s certainly possible, but if I had to guess, I would say probably not. I think this was maybe her best chance career-arc-wise, and she happened to run into an undying streaming juggernaut in I’m the Problem — and I could see her next album being another Solar Power-like swerve into less-commercial (or at least less-familiar) sonic and thematic territory. Plus, if she stays on the every-four-years plan and Wallen continues dropping new albums every two years, who’s to say she won’t keep running into the same brick wall?
Christine Werthman: She’s certainly got it in her to hit No. 1 again (No. 2 is pretty close!), but I doubt she’ll chase it. Right now, Lorde seems more interested in putting her lived experience first in her music, rather than polishing hooks. But who knows — maybe one day, those two interests will collide.
