By Ben Bonadies

For someone so young, it’s surprising to hear the 17-year old Lorde sound so incredibly bored with everything. The first line on “Tennis Court,” the first track on her debut Pure Heroine, is massively condescending. “Don’t you think it’s boring how people talk?” Lorde tends to harp on the little things; house parties she and her friends attend and the cities that “you’ll never see on a screen” as she sings in the chorus of “Team”, one of the album’s strongest songs. This focus is in total contrast with the grandeur of hip-hop culture which Lorde brilliantly satirizes in her hit single “Royals.” Hip Hop and pop music are, at once, what Lorde is rallying against and the inspiration behind the largely percussion-heavy backbeats behind her singing.

Lorde is a teenage musician making music about teenagers. Her songwriting glorifies her youthful exploits to such a degree as to make them seem noble. She makes going to a house party in a particularly seedy neighborhood look almost heroic. Say what you will about Lorde, but she definitely exhibits knowledge well beyond her 17 years. Her ten track long debut is solid and sweet with nothing feeling out of place or extraneous. If the singer can produce an album this good at such a young age, the sky’s the limit on her future.