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Sep 30, 2013September has been a profoundly great month for new female vocalists in popular music, but Lorde is easily the most vocally striking and lyrically thought-provoking. Pure Heroine is honest and addictive.
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Entertainment WeeklyOct 7, 201310 songs here, and not one loser in the bunch. [11 Oct 2013, p.72]
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Feb 4, 2014It’s the music here, not the sharp-toothed lyricism, which sets the record so far apart from the rest of the field.
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Oct 25, 2013While she’ll have to work even harder to find an angle for record number two her debut delivers everything you could have hoped for from a pop star in 2013.
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Oct 11, 2013This is written by someone who’s a kid right now, about what it is to be young right now. Consequently, this isn’t a “you” and “I” album. It’s a “we”, “us” and “them” album.
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Oct 8, 2013Pure Heroine makes the strongest possible statement that she belongs.
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Oct 2, 2013It’s that vital connection between Lorde’s present-day ruminations and the uncanny way her music hits on such a fundamental level with all that dirty, romanticized nostalgia that makes Pure Heroine such a success beyond "Royals'" ostensible aim of looking down its nose at the Miley Cyruses and Taylor Swifts of the world.
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Oct 1, 2013At 37:17, Pure Heroine doesn’t take long to take down modern values.
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Q MagazineNov 22, 2013It isn't perfect but it adds up to an intimidatingly assured opening shot from a major new talent. [Dec 2013, p.108]
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Oct 24, 2013Royals, her multi-platinum single, packs more finger-clicking disenchantment into three minutes than Lana del Rey managed in an entire album.
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Oct 24, 2013This is a remarkable debut that fairly sizzles with confidence and attitude.
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Oct 24, 2013Effortlessly mixing pop aspects with electronic undertones, hip-hop influence and the occasional R&B nod, she has taken everything that's wrong with today's chart toppers and turned it on its head--producing a record packed full of inspirational, intelligent monologues. It isn't half catchy either.
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Oct 22, 2013It’s all very here and now.
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Oct 7, 2013Pure Heroine feels surprisingly real and fully formed, punching through sparse, cushily booming post-hip-hop tracks with vividly searching lyrics about growing up too fast that can seem at once arrogant and pensive.
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Oct 1, 2013This is the rare debut that’s smart and disarming and instantly catchy.
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Sep 30, 2013With lyrics steeped in critical thought and slathered with confidently modulated vocals, Lorde is the antithesis of pop schlock, making Pure Heroine a project well deserving of the commercial attention it's been receiving.
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Sep 30, 2013The nihilist pop of Pure Heroine makes a strong case for the less-is-more maxim. What's left is a remarkably unpretentious and almost raw set of vignettes mostly powered by Lorde's modest, affectation-free performances.
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Sep 30, 2013Lorde’s clearly a gifted songwriter for her age, but don’t let the novelty affect your perception of Pure Heroine. It’s a very grown-up album despite its teenage topics, and if you give a damn about good pop songs, then you owe it a listen.
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Sep 30, 2013While it’s no masterpiece, Pure Heroine is unique and engaging enough to keep the conversation going.
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Oct 3, 2013These tracks all feel like they were written by a very precocious teenager, and that’s a big part of their charm.
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Nov 1, 2013Whilst Lorde’s world creates its own incredibly distinctive atmosphere, it feels accessible and open to maturing.
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Oct 10, 2013Nitpicking aside, Pure Heroine remains a lush, engaging experience.
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Oct 29, 2013Every track here follows the same pattern over identical lackadaisical rhythms, her vocals never rising beyond a low-slung murmur with most of the lyrics drawing the same conclusion: she’s bored.
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Oct 28, 2013Precocious, certainly, exhilarating, at times, Lorde’s debut album is almost but not quite as good as it thinks it is.
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Oct 28, 2013It's not only Joel Little's minimalist production, all clicks, bass and empty space. The restraint lies also in Ella Yelich-O'Connor's treatment of orthodox pop themes.
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Oct 25, 2013It's impressive, slick alienation for the Y Generation, but as with Del Rey, it's a one-trick-pony sort of act.
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Sep 30, 2013If nothing else, the music is aggressively okay (there's coiled-spring potential in the crackling, anxious "White Teeth Teens"). But its overall unspecialness undercuts Pure Heroine's devotion to playing both sides of Lorde's "only 16" coin.
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Sep 30, 2013Pure Heroine seems to hint at the truth... but the truth is, Lorde is a pop invention as much as LDR and is not nearly as honest about her intentions.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 1,291 out of 1392
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Mixed: 45 out of 1392
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Negative: 56 out of 1392
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Sep 30, 2013
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Oct 11, 2013
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Oct 11, 2013