Lorde - Pure Heroine
Critic Score
Based on 37 reviews
2013 Ratings: #209 / 1115
Year End Rank: #17
User Score
2013 Rank: #37
Liked by 783 people
Sign In to rate and review

CRITIC REVIEWS

94
Billboard
Built around producer Joel Little's deep bass rumbles, lilting loops and programmed beats, the album evokes the shadowy sonics of Massive Attack and the XX. In the center of the heaviness, however, is a 16-year-old with a dynamic voice and an even better pop sensibility.
91
Entertainment Weekly

Pure’s mix of woozy dream-pop, killer beats, intriguing vocals, and fanged lyrics about culture and millennial ennui signals the arrival of a new kind of star.

90
The Line of Best Fit

O’Connor’s coup d’état on Pure Heroine is ultimately the subversion of sentiment and expectations she achieves as Lorde: an often incongruous mix of the small-town study-hard goth-geek and a vampishm, leftfield pop star in the making.

90
Clash
The popularity of ‘Pure Heroine’ suggests all is not lost. It says there’s still an intellectual, polished and important place for pop, that doesn't rely on open letters, open legs, Twitter, twerking and obscenely desperate electro hooks.
83
A.V. Club

Pure Heroine is a scattered, but preternaturally gifted album, charting the rise of a new teen phenom with enough awareness to navigate crossover success with aplomb.

82
Paste

To know so much, to feel so little and to embrace what is, she illuminates being young, gifted and bored with a luminescence that suggests life beyond Louis Vuitton.

82
Sputnikmusic

Pure Heroine is by no stretch of the imagination a groundbreaking record. Yet it surpasses its peers not on its sonic pleasures, however alternatively insistent or recycled they may be, but on the singular force of its artist’s striking personality.

80
The Guardian
If the "Lorde" persona isn't just a record-label construct (who thought up that double-meaning album title, by the way?), it bodes well.
80
Time Out London
Ironically, Lorde’s remarkably accomplished debut album will probably give her access to that world of gold teeth, Grey Goose and tripping in the bathroom. Part of you hopes she steers clear – but another can’t help already thinking about the songs she could write as an inside observer...
80
God Is in the TV

Writing her own tracks and with a deep thought provoking voice, this is not an album to be taken lightly…at all.

80
The Telegraph

Lorde strikes a lovely balance between the world-weary, poetic cynicism of the outsider and youth's innocent optimism on her near-perfect debut.

80
The Sydney Morning Herald

The fact that a 16-year-old has such a passion and understanding of music makes everything in the world OK again. If you loved her singles, you'll fall in love with the rest of her work.

80
FasterLouder

Overwhelming nostalgia defines Pure Heroine, a wistful dissection of a youth still in progress.

80
Slant Magazine

Taking its production cues largely from Jessie Ware's excellent Devotion, the 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.

80
Rolling Stone
On her debut, she's a tiny-life teenager and a throne-watching pop comer with a sound that recalls the Internet hip-hop of Kitty Pryde, the cold-storage torch pop of Lana Del Rey and the primal self-dredging of Florence Welch, while still sounding strangely sui generis.
80
Q Magazine
It isn't perfect but it adds up to an intimidatingly assured opening shot from a major new talent.
80
Evening Standard
She’s a star; more to the point she’s an obvious star.
80
Exclaim!

With 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.

80
DIY
Everything boded well for the debut album, and rightly so, because it’s a phenomenal record. Auteurship, pure and simple. Her vision, and her ideas.
80
Drowned in Sound
Effortlessly 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.
80
musicOMH

It’s not a perfect album: it’s very much front-loaded, with Royals, Tennis Court and Ribs all popping up in the first half of the record ... There is, however, so much talent on display that fears of Lorde being a flash in the pan can surely be discounted.

80
The 405
The minor problems here are forgivable, as for the most part, Lorde is on pristine form. Where she goes next is anyone's guess, but she'll be watched by the entire world as she does so.
80
Consequence of Sound

Lorde’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. 

75
Pretty Much Amazing

While it’s no masterpiece, Pure Heroine is unique and engaging enough to keep the conversation going.

73
Pitchfork

More fully realized than her debut EP The Love Club, Pure Heroine is a fluid collection of throbbing, moody, menacingly anesthetized pop that sometimes sounds like St. Vincent’s "Champagne Year" mixed into whatever’s in the punch at Abel Tesfaye’s house.

70
PopMatters

Pure Heroine remains a lush, engaging experience. Lorde’s sudden international success is most welcome in such an overcrowded, singles-oriented marketplace as we have today, and her songwriting alone may very well turn her into some sort of Leonard Cohen for the tween set.

70
Earmilk

Clocking in at just over 37 minutes, Pure Heroine is built for the ADHD-misdiagnosed masses, and its pop charm carries a sort of universal allure that cancels out the album's harsh bite.

70
Loud and Quiet

Citing SBTRKT and Burial as influences, writing lines like, “I remember when your head caught flame” for the purpose of a rhyme and basing her best song around going down to the tennis court and talking it out, “like yeah.” It’s then that Lorde combines the frivolity of youth and the new science of FM pop 2.0 to unchallengeable affect.

70
Tiny Mix Tapes
In 1 year (tops), no one will want to hear “Royals” ever again.
70
The Fly

There’s an honesty to Lorde’s youthfully cynical musings (very much the thoughts of a teenager, albeit a damn savvy one) that affords her more avenues to explore. And, whilst Lorde’s world creates its own incredibly distinctive atmosphere, it feels accessible and open to maturing.

60
SPIN

If nothing else, the music is aggressively okay. But its overall unspecialness undercuts Pure Heroine's devotion to playing both sides of Lorde's "only 16" coin

60
NME

Every 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.

60
AllMusic

Pure 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.

60
The Independent

It's impressive, slick alienation for the Y? Generation, but as with Del Rey, it's a one-trick-pony sort of act.

60
The Observer

She is more forthright about pop's failings: on Royals, one of several great moments on a decent album, she deftly punctures the inflated dreams of so many pop artists.

60
The Irish Times

While Lorde's palette of influences is impeccable and her voice mature beyond her years, Pure Heroine is a somewhat trendy collection – neither classic-sounding enough to stand alone, nor innovative enough to break new ground.

40
Gigwise
Pure Heroine has the feel of talent being spread too thinly, trying too hard to tick boxes and sounding forced as a result – particularly in terms of the bland lyrics.
loganchung
85

Nothing was the same after Royals dropped.

LepardRyan
85

Nvm I was wrong this is a pop classic for sure

KaitoNkmra
91

Lorde casually dropped one of the most influential modern pop records at 16… What in the actual flying fuck was I doing at 16? Shit like this makes me question my youth lmao 😭

Yeah we all know this one and how good was when it was first released. “Pure Heroine” is one of the most important records, if not the most important of the early 2010s and nearly 10 years later, we can absolutely see why that might be the case.

Like I’m sure was the case with many others, ... read more

lucasbarnts
78

Pure Heroine is a modern classic. There's nothing like it, and it changed the state of pop music forever. While I could certainly live without "Still Sane," every other track on this LP is fantastic, creative, and invigorating.

1. Tennis Court - 7
2. 400 Lux - 8
3. Royals - 8
4. Ribs - 9
5. Buzzcut Season - 9
6. Team - 9
7. Glory and Gore - 7
8. Still Sane - 5
9. White Teeth Teens - 7
10. A World Alone - 7

Best track: “Buzzcut Season”

Movie_Rose
72

From "Tennis Court" to "Ribs," this debut LP from Lorde is filled with bangers. It kind of fell off a little closer to the end for me with "Still Sane" and "White Teeth Girls" (much prefer "The Love Club"), but she ended off on the amazing "A World Alone."

Mostdopeswiftie
97

I like this album way to much 🔥

Purchasing Pure Heroine from Amazon helps support Album of the Year. Or consider a donation?
Become a Donor
Donor badge, no ads + more benefits.
Advertisement

Track List

1Tennis Court
3:18
88
2400 Lux
3:54
86
3Royals
3:10
86
4Ribs
4:18
94
5Buzzcut Season
4:06
90
6Team
3:13
91
7Glory and Gore
3:30
83
8Still Sane
3:08
77
9White Teeth Teens
3:36
82
10A World Alone
4:54
86
Total Length: 37 minutes
Sign in to comment
2mo
5mo
5mo
5mo
5mo


Added on: September 26, 2013