Lorde – Pure Heroine (2013/2021) [Official Digital Download 24bit/192kHz]

Lorde – Pure Heroine (2013/2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 37:12 minutes | 1,41 GB | Genre: Alternative & Indie
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Universal Records

Pure Heroine is the debut studio album by New Zealand singer-songwriter Lorde, which was released through Universal, Lava, and Republic Records on 27 September 2013. After several unsuccessful sessions with songwriters, Lorde was paired with Joel Little by A&R representative Scott Maclachlan, who assisted with the album’s production. Recording took place at Golden Age Studios in Auckland. Pure Heroine has been described as a dream pop, electronica and electropop album with minimalist production, deep bass and programmed beats.

Pure Heroine received generally positive reviews from music critics, many of whom praised its songwriting, production, and Lorde’s vocal performance. It appeared on several year-end critics’ lists, and was nominated for Best Pop Vocal Album at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards. The album deals with themes of youth and critiques mainstream culture, exploring materialism, fame, consumer culture and social status. Pure Heroine has been noted for its influence on modern pop music.

Lorde released the album’s lead single, “Royals”, to critical and commercial success; it was followed by “Tennis Court”, “Team” and “Glory and Gore”. The album debuted at number three on the US Billboard 200 chart, selling 129,000 album-equivalent units, and topped the charts in 12 other markets. Pure Heroine was one of 2014’s best-selling albums. It was certified platinum in the United Kingdom, double platinum in Canada and triple platinum in Australia and the United States, selling more than 5 million copies worldwide.

Signed to a major label at an early age, she was groomed in the darkness of studios, the label knowing the potential they had in their singer/songwriter. She wrote on her own, then she was paired with a sympathetic producer/songwriter, live performances taking a back seat to woodshedding. If this story in the early years of the 2010s brings to mind Lana Del Rey, it’s no coincidence that it also applies to New Zealand singer/songwriter Lorde, whose 2013 debut, Pure Heroine, contains all of the stylized goth foreboding of LDR’s Born to Die and almost none of the louche, languid glamour. This is not a small thing. Lana Del Rey is a self-created starlet willing herself into stardom but Lorde fancies herself a poet, churning away at the darker recesses of her soul. Some of this may be due to age. Lorde, as any pre-release review or portrait helpfully illustrated, was only 16 when she wrote and recorded Pure Heroine with producer Joel Little, and an adolescent aggrievance and angst certainly underpin the songs here. Lorde favors a tragic romanticism, an all-or-nothing melodrama that Little accentuates with his alternately moody and insistent productions. Where Lana Del Rey favors a studiously detached irony, Lorde pours it all out which, in itself, may be an act: her bedsit poetry is superficially more authentic but the music is certainly more pop, both in its construction — there are big hooks in the choruses and verses — and in the production, which accentuates a sad shimmer where everything is beautiful and broken. There is a topical appeal here, particularly because Lorde and Little do spend so much time on the surface, turning it into something seductive, but it is no more real than the studied detachment of Lana Del Rey, who Lorde so strongly (and intentionally) resembles. Born to Die is meant to be appreciated as slippery, elusive pop; 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. – Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Tracklist:
1-1. Lorde – Tennis Court (03:19)
1-2. Lorde – 400 Lux (03:54)
1-3. Lorde – Royals (03:10)
1-4. Lorde – Ribs (04:18)
1-5. Lorde – Buzzcut Season (04:06)
1-6. Lorde – Team (03:12)
1-7. Lorde – Glory And Gore (03:30)
1-8. Lorde – Still Sane (03:07)
1-9. Lorde – White Teeth Teens (03:36)
1-10. Lorde – A World Alone (04:55)

Download: