Living With Records: June 2025 (Lorde, Turnstile, Miley Cyrus)
Plus reviews of Haim and Stateside.
June has been very long. Grad school has begun, and it was a lot more than I expected it to be. There have been a lot of albums that I love that have been companions for writing papers as fast as I can. Journalism prepared me well to write a lot in a little amount of time.
My book is also almost finished. I hope to have some updates on that soon. By soon, I mean within the year, maybe.
Lorde – Virgin
When it comes to Lorde, I am a Melodrama person. To me that record is an excellent fusion of catchy songwriting and artistic authenticity. While I recognize those qualities in her debut and Solar Power, I don’t think she ever merged those two ideals as well as she did on her sophomore record. When Virgin was announced with the lead single “What Was That,” it felt like a possible return to form, at least the form that I enjoy the most. That is something of the issue though, when you go back to something successful, it’s usually not as strong as the original version.
Virgin is a pretty big pivot from the sunny, singer-songwriter sounds that Solar Power laid the groundwork for. The album’s electronic direction and experimental touch felt like a continuation of Lorde’s appearance on Charli XCX’s “girl so confusing” remix, both in sound and substance. Besides being a more confrontational style of dance pop, Charli brought the idea that this type of music can be much more revealing and dig to personal depths to the forefront.
This album is ultimately about self-discovery, reckoning with your past and learning who you are. Whether Lorde is opening up about being gender fluid on “Hammer”, her relationship with her family on “Favourite Daughter”, or bad relationships on “Man of the Year,” Virgin feels like a purging, letting everything out as electronics swell and calm. By the time the excellent ballad “GRWM” hits, she gives her mission statement about how she “finally knows who she wants to be.” While Lorde’s career has been built off of being a more thoughtful popstar, we all ultimately get sucked into systems that can feel restrictive. This record feels like shedding some of those restrictions.
Ultimately, the songs that hit the hardest usually feel like relationship songs. “Current Affairs” and “David” feel like flipsides of the same relationship. Where the former takes an indie rock approach, the latter closes the album with a bare song where Lorde feels perhaps the most vulnerable and confessional that she ever has. Still, I’ve found that lead single “What Was That” remains the standout song on the album where she’s feeling nostalgic yet more knowledgeable about a past love that turned sour. Sometimes those moments you thought were great are actually leaving wounds that are going to creep up when you’re in your late 20s, partying with friends at Baby’s All Right.
Even though I really enjoy this album, I can’t help but feel like the most prominent themes and a bit of the sounds and textures just feel like they were an evolution back towards Melodrama rather than some completely fresh era. Still, Lorde is a welcome resurgence in the pop landscape. Where Solar Power felt bright yet isolated, Virgin sounds more like a coming together in the ways that her first two albums did. Even if this is a more self-reflective album, it sounds like she’s opening up to give other people the space to join and sing-along, reflecting on their pasts with these songs.
I know plenty of folks who have been riding the wave since her debut, and when I saw her on the Solar Power tour, there were a lot of people who ate that up as well. I will also say that hearing the Solar Power songs live made those songs connect for me more than the recorded versions did.
Haim – I quit
Haim are one of the best examples of a right place, right time bands. There are moments throughout the band’s discography where I get caught up in their catchy, poppy brand of indie rock, but more often than not, I feel like their music tends to bleed into the background. If you peruse through major indie releases enough, you’ll find plenty of artists who draw on Haim’s sound to varying levels of success. This isn’t to say that this is a bad band, not just for me. With that being said, their newest album I quit does land in the right place at the right time, because despite my resistance, I have found some delight on this record.
Arriving on the cusp of the summer solstice, I quit shows the sisters catching a vibe for a carefree summer, flipping off a candid photo while sipping a mimosa (or maybe a craft beer). I will say that typically, this style of music doesn’t necessarily connect with me, but I think that this summer I’ve been longing to feel released from a grind, simply prioritizing myself as I can laugh on road trips with friends. During the final song, the chorus emphasizes “it’s mine,” and that reclaiming of a sense of self is something that I can live vicariously through this album.
This summer-y sense ultimately comes into play the most with the way that songs like “All over me” or “Relationships” sound like messy flings built on late nights after having a few too many cocktails at happy hour and just giving into those desires. Whether it’s the former’s straightforward sensuality, or the latter’s resentment for catching feelings, both are delivered with a laidback groove and sense of fun that shows that even if you’re going to get your heartstrings tied in a few knots, you’ll have fun unwinding them later on.
This idea that relationships (romantic, friendly, and society) can be these annoying destructive prisons of our own creation do permeate the record the most. The songs are usually fun. “Down to be wrong” is perfect for waving your hands in the air and singing along. “Take me back” is punchy with a stomp-clap sound, delivered at romcom montage speed. It also runs through how relationships get that messy, and it’s a little tongue-in-cheek with how hard these elements can get. Even though these songs are applicable to anyone who’s had a messy romance, they also serve as commentary on Haim’s status as indie superstars with cosigns from popstars, high profile collabs across the indie space, and even one of the sisters appearing in a Paul Thomas Anderson flick. Even though these songs can be allegories, they primarily feel like they could speak to anyone who has never played in a revered indie project.
While I can’t say if I’m definitively a new Haim fan over this record, I will say that it has made me want to roll the windows down and run to a beach. I don’t necessarily think that anything here is going to become the defining 2025 song of the summer, but it would be appropriate to lie in the grass, giggle with friends, as beads of sweat drip down your nose. While tunes like “Try to feel my pain” would be a perfect Bluetooth speaker song for a picnic, “Spinning” does show that the group are happy to bounce around to show their bonafide pop credentials. While July will be very busy for me, I do think that I quit may be appropriate for some relaxing August days.
Stateside – Where You Found Me
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