How Lorde's Pure Heroine Challenged Pop | 10 Years Later Retrospective

10 years after its release, Lorde's Pure Heroine still has impact in the way it caused a pivot in pop priority and royalty. In this brief retrospective, we'll touch on Lorde's debut and the road to stardom she took. We'll also look into music itself and the artists it inspired. I made a video 5 years ago about Pure Heroine that had been hastily slapped together. After completing my Lana series (ironically), I'm back with a proper video I can be proud of. (someADR issues and editing errors aside lol) #Lorde #PureHeroine #erarecap
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[@EljohnMacaranas]

Pure Heroine is 10 years old! WOW! Comment below your favorite track and how Pure Heroine has impacted your life!

[@JosephZuniga-vt2qo]

Her minimalism in Pure Heroine is like truth of teenage angst filtered in its purest form.

[@EljohnMacaranas]

I think the emphasis on her voice on this one in contrast to how bombastic Melo sounds is a great metaphor for like how the noise is like the outside world. PH takes place in the suburbs which really isn’t the world for most folks vs Melo being in NYC.

[@kankuro110]

I know Melodrama is most people’s favorite and likely her strongest record, but there’s just something about Pure Heroine I prefer. Maybe it’s just the nostalgia, but wow what a debut. Can’t believe it’s been 10 years! ❤

[@EljohnMacaranas]

I get that, the aesthetic and the sound and energy… she never quite came back to it ever again. Damn a decade!

[@Itsjaviohhh]

I’ve always loved Pure Heroine more tbh

[@tenzen6899]

Melodramma was the best Album but Pure Heroine was the Best Era.

[@dontnoticemesenpai6745]

I love Melodrama but it never quite had the chokehold that Pure Heroine had on me. I had Pure Heroine practically coursing through my veins as a young teen.

[@cass.ettetape]

White Teeth Teens and A World Alone closing the standard edition is wild and flawless and straight up perfection.

[@EljohnMacaranas]

Those two tracks really bring closure to the story started in Love Club and the overall record.

[@atp8108]

Incredibly apt this record about teenage nostalgia we’re all feeling nostalgic for ten years later. Lorde said in her email today: “a lot of stuff isn’t good after ten years. But I am still totally touched by this sweet record. I have deep respect for the vision of the little one making it.” 🖤

[@EljohnMacaranas]

God her email made me cry haha, she’s so eloquent! Her wordsmithing keeps her a fave of mine for eternity!

[@atp8108]

@@EljohnMacaranas I feel the same way. Even when she’s just typing up an email it’s still written so beautifully.

[@soijustlistenedto...]

It did not only challenge pop, it changed it. Sometimes I get chills whenever I remember Bowie calling her a future of music because it's so true. Almost every year, a new "Lorde" emerges into the surface of the pop scene, with Olivia Rodrigo as her latest child. I kinda hate that the GP often discredits Lorde for what she did for pop music, just because Solar Power was a divisive album or because she deliberately avoids social media.

[@EljohnMacaranas]

Lorde formed a whole archetype of the prodigy ingenue with dark soulful mature music. Like a specific sort of marketable version of it for sure. A decade from now we’ll keep hearing about “the new Lorde” tbh

[@soijustlistenedto...]

@@EljohnMacaranas True. Her and Lana became the standard to be honest! We'll just get new Lana or Lorde but we'll always come back to these two!

[@rmxevbio5889]

@@soijustlistenedto... love your statement

[@potts995]

Ribs is my fave on the album too, hauntingly good especially for such a young artist IMO

[@EljohnMacaranas]

It’s so profoundly tragic yet so sweet! Like the symmetry is genius. 😭

[@potts995]

@@EljohnMacaranas It’s the “but that will never be enough” that always gets me. What I get from it is the feeling of nostalgia from reminiscing on the past is like a ghost haunting you that will never be as fulfilling as you want it to be, no matter how fondly you look back. Honestly Ribs and Supercut are probably my faves of hers and I think they share similar themes.

[@damntydorei]

I tattooed RIBS myself when I was 17. 2 years later I moved to Portugal by myself, teached myself ukulele and teached myself ukulele and finally this song. It feels so much to me. Even saw her live once, was about to cry

[@omarherasme6699]

Dude this album and Haim’s “Days are gone” kept me fed during my high school years. I first discovered “The Love Club” EP and little by little watching Lorde rise and rise; it was something beautiful to see. And I remember people comparing her to Lana and Sky Ferreira at the time, but it’s interesting that at the time she was the one amongst her peers break into the mainstream, even introducing the minimalist pop that others adopted. It really was an amazing album era.

[@EljohnMacaranas]

I think there was an aptitude for marketing and a hungry teen market who wanted to be reflected and seen. Like Lorde became an emblem for the youth in a way Lana and Sky couldn’t at the time. Though to be honest, we were spoiled in Alt Pop girl heaven. God I mourn for Sky in particular all the time. Return her to us, Capitol.

[@alexterieur8813]

I just love so much how in this album she was able to portray teenageness with such distance but at the same time while clearly being one and being aware of being one. It’s what her so special: her self awareness that didnt compromise her genuine teenage angst !

[@EljohnMacaranas]

Like when she mad about things it doesn’t feel manufactured to be relatable. I think normal teen angst is filtered through romance rather than like anger at the world and the impending need to find your place so fast and stay there.

[@noneapplicable1327]

oh this record rocked my world, got me through the hell of high school and parts of college, melo is the love of my life but i forgot how good this was

[@EljohnMacaranas]

Oh Melodrama gets me in a way that so few albums ever will but also… PH really did define so much of my growing up years 😭

[@visualspark6308]

A World Alone is a masterpiece and deserves to be talked about more

[@EljohnMacaranas]

One of the best songs she's ever done! I'd say best closer but I love Perfect Places just a little more.

[@visualspark6308]

@@EljohnMacaranas Yeah for sure. Perfect Places is one of her best songs as well.

[@costcofreezers]

absofuckinglutely

[@michbenj]

When i say this album changed my life, i really mean it because i was never the same. I cant believe it has been 10 years

[@michbenj]

"i see the veins of my city like they do in space" "living in ruins of a palace within my dreams" "god knows we like archaic kinds of fun" 15 year old me was gagged

[@EljohnMacaranas]

A literary queen!!!

[@froxet]

Pure Heroine, alongside its September 2013 cohort, ‘The 1975’ and ‘Days Are Gone’, were my lifeline during high school. It’s so odd to think that it’s been ten years already, but hey the album still slaps. Ella (Lorde) really bared her teenage essence and perspective with ‘Pure Heroine’ and I couldn’t be more grateful.

[@EljohnMacaranas]

OMG The 1975 kept me afloat at the time as did Sky’s Night Time My Time (haha I was that “alt” kid who the AP kids hated and the popular kids would want to smoke with 😭😭😭, now they’re all married or moved to the East coast)

[@WaitingForTheHook]

Born To Die by Lana Del Rey changed it, actually. This record was just caught in its stream.

[@ThomasWillett1]

It's been 10 years already? I still remember the day this came out. It was one of the few times I immediately replayed an album after the first time. While I get people who hate "Royals," it's the rest of the album that won me over. "400 Lux" has been one of my favorite songs (full-stop) since because it really does feel like driving down a vacant road at night with someone (not to mention the use of ticking clocks is next level). The chorus is chilling in the best ways possible. I love a lot of this album for how against the grain it was compared to contemporary pop (I'm a full-on Lana Del Rey stan so your comparison explains some of it). Overall, it's probably my third favorite Lorde album just because "Melodrama" is one of the best albums of the 2010s and I turn on "Solar Power" whenever I need to mellow out (and because that's a lot, it's grown on me as a vibe record). Still, it's the start of one of my favorite music careers of the past decade and look forward to whatever she does whenever she wants.

[@EljohnMacaranas]

I feel like time itself is a weird funny thing. It feels like yesterday but a million miles away. 400 Lux is just such a great track. Like it’s still probably her most romantic grounded track (The Louvre comes so close as does Man with the Axe). The Lana comparisons are so real, but she was like cool blue to Lana’s warm maroon. I get seeing this as her weakest record. I think as we gain distance from the wavelength of teenagerhood, we come to appreciate growing up but looking back and realizing “we were actually smart and cool for our age” then.

[@societycrumbles]

One of my all-time favorite albums that I go back to all the time. I think it really resonated with me because I used to be a teenage girl who didn't really fit in and Lorde spoke about that experience so well. I could not identify with her second album, so I never really loved Melodrama, but Pure Heroine is a perfect album to me, and will always be important to me.

[@EljohnMacaranas]

It’s very much the A New Hope to Melo’s Empire and SP’s Return of the Jedi 😭

[@SebastianSandovalCastro]

Can't believe that 10 years flew just like that Pure Heroine it's a package of nostalgia sliced in ten pieces of pure gold glory I love this album so much and listen to it makes me feel young and important, I don't know how to describe that feeling Thank you for doing this video, I really liked it

[@EljohnMacaranas]

Thank you for watching! 🖤 It’s such a near and dear record to me, just so good!

[@pleasecouldyoubetender]

no better just feels soooo australian/nz summer. Idk it just captures that nostalgia so well for me. I need it tattooed. It gives me such a unique feeling

[@EljohnMacaranas]

It’s such a fun free track! I love it so much! I wish it had been promoted and known more, I have a few friends who’ve just found it just now.

[@bluntasiaalize1688]

This video hit me right in the feels. No Better is criminally underrated.

[@EljohnMacaranas]

Oh my god the first time I heard it, I lost it! I think it was a week or two or maybe the week of Beyonce’s self titled but it was a freebie on iTunes 😭

[@ananyapadala7189]

400 Lux forever has my heart. Great video Elijohn!

[@EljohnMacaranas]

That track literally makes me melt every time, hearing it live changed my life! Thank you for watching 🖤

[@tomcollins3903]

My favorite songs on this album are •Bravado •White teeth teens •Glory and Gore •Team •Tennis Court •400 Lux

[@EljohnMacaranas]

Omfg taste!

[@costcofreezers]

pure heroine was literally the first album i ever fell in love with

[@EljohnMacaranas]

Best first love ever!

[@batuhantamburaci]

Calling Blue Neighbourhood as Gay Pure Heroine IM DEAD 😭😭😭

[@EljohnMacaranas]

Did i lieeeeee 😭

[@pedroamador1991]

I have actually never listened to PH but Melodrama is my favorite album of all times. To this day, I sob during Hard Feeling. Anyway, great video

[@EljohnMacaranas]

Thank you so much! Ugh Melo is still maybe my all-time fave record of all time.

[@jam444kyu]

sober II is one of the best songs ever

[@unicorntomboy9736]

I remember Royals back when i was near the end of my high school days. That song feels so iconic and memorable. I feeo like popular music just isn't as good as it used to be Her song truly spoke and resonated with me at the time, and still does now

[@EljohnMacaranas]

Pop music has sort of lost craftsmanship, we’re very chorus focused these days because we need those viral tiktok choruses. Royals had so many different elements working for it, the verses were clean and meaningful, the breakdown added contrast, even the way the music video felt so fresh despite being mostly footage of someone who wasn’t her.

[@Astrid_2016]

Royals was my favorite song as a kid well before I could fully understand/appreciate it and why it was so good.

[@EljohnMacaranas]

I think the way it sounds just resonates, it’s so distinct that it keeps you then eventually you revisit it and realize how profound it is… 😭 ugh love her

[@tenzen6899]

While Ribs is my fav, Glory and Gore is sooo underrated, the song is so cinematic and edgy it feels like a War scene from a movie.

[@EljohnMacaranas]

I think it was done dirty when it was a single in the states, just a radio single without any real push probably bc Lorde was busy 😭

[@themaddiecommittee]

her original EP was fundamental to my taste in music and art developing! ❤

[@EljohnMacaranas]

Love Club was such a great teaser like omfg I’m sad they were taken off PH but understand why

[@llamadum6363]

Great vid as always!!! For me when I think of this album, I think of this blog series about this album written by a fan that Lorde said felt like a worthy companion piece. To be honest that was my avenue into Lorde. I read it and started listening to Pure Heroine just in time for the release of Melodrama. I was blown away by how much of an impact the songs, Ella's writing and her presence on each track could have on people. How deeply it seemed to mirror the experiences of so many. How much insight her pen carried with what initially could be seen as throw away lines. While it's not lost on me this sounds kinda like I don't have an opinion on music until after I've watched the needledrop review, I do need a bit of context sometimes to jump start my own exploring. What this album means to me isn't as much as the sophomore followup, it still is an incredible album from an artist that at such a young age was demonstrating songwriting efficiency in world building, personal flare, social commentary and a compelling narrative structure. To dissect all of it is to realise what a meal you are getting with this debut effort and what to expect when you listen to her other albums. Nothing short of mind blowing for me, as a fan and a songwriter. This album is incredible. Fave would have to be Buzzcut season but also want to shout out Swingin Party on the extended version. Love so much!

[@EljohnMacaranas]

Thank you! Ugh I need to read that blog it sounds so fascinating. I think all you said really does resonate with how I feel about the album. I think at the time of the release, we needed a tonic to the numbness of all the fun if not drunken stupor of ignoring our insecurities. I adore that early 2010s pop era but the repetitive shallow “self empowerment” pop felt so disingenuous and Lorde was one of the few to go “um I’m not fine, I’m bored but also anxious actually and that’s fine” and that felt so real to me. She wasn’t twee or obnoxious about it, she wasn’t screaming “we live in a society”, she just spoke her mind. And that was just so fresh. Ugh Buzzcut Season is a classic I hope she performs at every tour forever and ever. Also Swinging Party is so underrated 😭

[@sarahumphreville4088]

I bought Pure Herione as part of iTunes 8 dollar albums and I would listen to it while walking home from grade seven… kinda wish I played it aloud instead of in my headphones. Because I was with my sissy… can’t believe it’s been 10 years

[@EljohnMacaranas]

Man remember when we used to buy records 😭 I still do for my faves but wow that was just 10 years ago!

[@victoriabell6330]

Omg I feel actually old now since this album is 10 years 😭 remember listening to this in high school, and will never forget Ultraviolence coming out after and people suspecting Fucked My Way Up To The Top being about her and others lol. What a time! Absolutely played White Teeth Teens, 400 Lux, and used to loveeee Glory and Gore but would say nowadays G&G doesn’t hold up for me other than nostalgic. Still play this album to this day - AND remember it being a key album for my friends who weren’t really into pop, but Teams made them actually listen to the whole album.

[@EljohnMacaranas]

Oh the drama of Fucked My Way Up to the Top 😭 like the ATRL forums were insane! G&G is a cute track but WTT and 400 Lux def aged so much better. Team was such a perfect little bop and followup to Royals!

[@victoriabell6330]

No literally 😂 I remember being like but Lorde is too young for this drama? Lmao - and yes totally agree!! ✨

[@sunrise2322]

Pure Heroine set the standard

[@EljohnMacaranas]

Mother really did that 😭

[@chyandyeux]

this album was the soundtrack to my teenage years. melodrama will be my pre-adolescent one (she literally sings "i'm 19 and i'm on fire" on 'perfect places.' i, too, at that time was 19.) but pure heroine is a gem that will never be erased from my lore, my life and the pop and music history. ultimately, lorde always has a special place in my heart forever.

[@EljohnMacaranas]

Awwwwwwww 😭😭😭

[@chyandyeux]

and thank you for making this video reminding me how i love this album. you've always been my favorite pop music and culture video creators, Eljohn 💗💓 please never stop making videos 💚💛

[@westernless97]

thank you for making this

[@EljohnMacaranas]

Thank you for watching! 🖤

[@tenzen6899]

I really hope that Lorde's 4th Album combines both Melodramma and Pure Heroine sounds in a Dark Simple yet Sophisticated way. It's hard to explain, something like Lana's A&W maybe... And hope that she works with both Jack and Joe on that record.

[@EljohnMacaranas]

I do think the 2 tracks she teased as new music combine all the best elements of her past work even the plus side of SP

[@tenzen6899]

@@EljohnMacaranas she teased 2 tracks where ? When? How can i find them?

[@joshmomo2917]

I remember I was still in third grade I transferred to a new school when this record came out and everybody started wearing crowns and I always felt alone cuz I wasn’t able to wear a crown. When I was 16 I listened to this album in it’s entirety and it really spoke to me in ways other artists can’t. I remember singing Still sane while it was my birthday. Now I’m in a new school starting college it feels so getting scary getting old but I’m glad that It feels so weird and yet also cathartic that this albums milestones happens when I’m also in changing. So honoured to have this Album to be my first CD💿

[@EljohnMacaranas]

It’s insane how this record has carried through your life! Wow!

[@janellelives5158]

I was in 5th grade when Pure Heroine was released. I’ve never stopped listening to the album since then!

[@joshmomo2917]

@@EljohnMacaranas I know right! and this wasn’t even the album that turned into a Lorde Fan it was Solar Power!

[@Sequoya]

This album is amazing! The vocal harmonies are perfection. I hear that she sang barber shop, which makes them so unique. Awesome video!

[@EljohnMacaranas]

Lorde said in an interview at the time of the album she hadn’t mastered an instrument yet so her voice had to be that for her and so it was! Thank you so much! Not to be corny but seeing you comment makes me so happy! You always add something new to the conversation! I’m so lucky to have to comments I have, it could be so much worse or low brow but I’m happy with my little corner of thoughtful pop stans! 🩵

[@Sequoya]

@@EljohnMacaranas thank you for your content and you are so very kind! You are very special. I see it in your work, and your voice is so important to pop culture.

[@edcosta7212]

Lord hit me with Melodrama. Badly. Then I discovered Pure Heroine. This album makes so sense in me, like something I have inside because of my teenager years that I never knew how to handle it.

[@EljohnMacaranas]

Yessss we love a self discovery moment!

[@bedoubleene3297]

Thank you for reviewing it for the 10th anniversary video.

[@EljohnMacaranas]

Thank u for watching! 🖤

[@laincoubert7236]

didn't lana just recently sue lorde for plagiarism? i was surprised she thanked her on the shirt 😭😭 pure heroine is its own special thing for me cause i'm moved by such "coming of age" narratives in music and cinema (i didn't have great teen years of my own). 400 lux, ribs, and buzzcut season scream nostalgia to me and provide that escapism that only lana ever managed to achieve for my listening experience... that's why i'm not necessarily set on melodrama being lorde's best record. i feel like you could've touched on bravado (from the ep), it's an underrated gem. but otherwise, your retrospective is so on point and perfectly describes the album!!

[@rodrigomedeiros1234]

no one sued anyone.

[@EljohnMacaranas]

I do not believe the suit ever happened, if it did, believe me we’d know (probably settled out of court) Omg yes! It’s so cinematic like a movie! Melo’s a v situational record, I think part of why it hit so hard for me was me having my first proper real break up around the release. Thank you! 🖤

[@sofiamontanez6889]

She was so freaking influential that until this date I'm so tired of listening to X artist new album and always being like "yikes another one that wants to be Lorde so bad"

[@EljohnMacaranas]

Me with a lot of the lesser clones of hers that came out, Halsey and Troye are my big exceptions bc they had some other element making them distinct.

[@thevarietychannelofyoutube4769]

Pure Heroine is a fantastic album, I love it so much. But in my opinion, it kind of ruined pop music for a few years. The trends and sounds it introduced into the mainstream started off good but when they really started to blow up and dominate pop radio in the late 2010s, they became soulless versions of themselves

[@EljohnMacaranas]

I feel for that, a lot of 2017’s dry pop felt imitative or just outright dull. Lorde ironically had infused Melo with an energy that felt so contradictory and dense, it ironically fell victim to the sounds of the time.

[@thevarietychannelofyoutube4769]

@@EljohnMacaranas Yes! Thank you! I stand by my opinion that a lot of the songs that use the trends Lorde introduced into the mainstream that were released before 2017 were actually good but these sounds really became as soulless as possible. At least Billie Eilish understood how to do it right

[@thevarietychannelofyoutube4769]

@@EljohnMacaranas Also, 2017 was such a terrible year for music that Chillin Like A Villain, a kids song from a Disney TV movie, was one of the catchiest, best produced and most fun pop songs to chart in that entire year

[@EljohnMacaranas]

Let us never forget Kiaara’s Gold which ended up inspiring Selena and creating a neverending loop of songs like it 😭

[@thevarietychannelofyoutube4769]

@@EljohnMacaranas I don't know, I think Kiiaras Gold was ok. I wouldn't call it good but I thought it was decent.

[@therobotdevil2284]

This was one of the last 2 CDs I brought before jumping on the streaming bandwagon, so I spent tons of time with it. She and I are only a week apart in age too, so the album spoke to me on another level as well! Ugh I love it SM to this day.

[@EljohnMacaranas]

Lorde is one of the few artists who I still buy records for haha (physicals like vinyls ofc), SP not having CDs and likely her never doing a CD again put me onto that format 😭

[@danielrhenals1533]

This video made me listen to lorde solar power and get it in a trascendental way because: I’m also from the 96 and looking back at myself i truly experienced Pure Heroin, lived Melodrama and evolved into Solar Power. And it made sense. And it’s truly the voice of the people born in 1996.

[@EljohnMacaranas]

Oh hands down she captured that mid 20s wtf am i doing energy so well 😭

[@Dave-vb4nd]

“Fuc*** my way up to the top This is my show” Go baby GO GO GO GO GO”

[@EljohnMacaranas]

The shade was insane but I’m glad it’s cordial

[@jeppeaksrensen8316]

I randomly shuffled my 900+ song playlist this morning (i know i’m a monster) and three whole Pure Heroine songs made it to my Ear holes which i find beautifully fitting ✨

[@EljohnMacaranas]

Hahaha I have a 500 song playlist called “the compendium of songs you can’t forget” so I do not blame you haha

[@PXWantonio]

I think that Pure Heroine stood out because of all the pop music in that time actually. Maybe if she released the album today it wouldn't be a thing. But anyways Lorde is the Lord.

[@EljohnMacaranas]

Oh true but those albums are her sons!

[@Edood]

The Gaga shade at 5:13 😭

[@EljohnMacaranas]

I love Gaga and Joanne lmao it wasn’t shade, that’s just how I talk

[@eduardoloya7502]

She is art

[@EljohnMacaranas]

She’s a genius! Truly transcendental!

[@adlerpapiernik719]

Contemporaries in age is so silly I love

[@EljohnMacaranas]

Lmao I learned that phrase from my college professor many years ago and it stuck!

[@Meishaa2023]

Although this is one of my favorite albums, I can’t wait until she releases some new music each and every time that she does I’m super excited I believe that she will bring us another album like Pure Heroine or melodrama 14:37

[@EljohnMacaranas]

I think SP was an exercise in reseting expectations, I’d hate to live in a way where I’d have to top perfection every time tbh so SP bears that whole trough between the highs (it wasn’t THAT bad)

[@aureen8973]

the blue neighborhood comment being the gay pure heroine is so accurate

[@EljohnMacaranas]

I love Blue Neighborhood quite a bit but yeah relistening even the instrumentals have this quality to them that feels like an extension

[@brendanforde2631]

Love club EP is hands down the most iconic freshman release to date

[@EljohnMacaranas]

I feel like it definitely set a model for upstarts to try an EP first instead of like an album, that was the old trad model of the past but by the 2000s everyone skipped that step

[@lorenzomerotto7207]

Something that I rarely see mentioned is that Tennis Court might reference the French Revolution and the Tennis Court Oath

[@EljohnMacaranas]

OMG it would track well!

[@JoCalderone1]

The fact that the opening line is don't you hate it how people talk and the closing one is let em talk JESUS

[@EljohnMacaranas]

She’s so brilliant like 😭😭😭

[@paulomascarenhas739]

Excellent video as always. Would you consider doing a retrospective on Sky Ferreira's "Night Time, My Time", which is about to turn 10 as well?

[@EljohnMacaranas]

Oh that’s on my docket!

[@gracielaayala2226]

Cant believe is 10 years ago

[@EljohnMacaranas]

Sometimes you blink and suddenly you and Lorde are both closer to 30 than 20…

[@UnicornsForSale]

Gonna relisten to this now!

[@EljohnMacaranas]

Such a good record, been looping all week!

[@kazimirfeanom]

Lorde was really ahead of her time

[@EljohnMacaranas]

One of the alt girl queens

[@beebeedeeie]

one of my favourites

[@EljohnMacaranas]

Oh it’s aged so beautifully!

[@tyleryyang]

shes so life

[@EljohnMacaranas]

L4 needs to feel like PH and Melo but for people about to turn 30

[@IsSarahPi]

400 Lux is my favourite Lorde song of all time despite PH probably being my least favourite of her albums overall (I still really enjoy it).

[@EljohnMacaranas]

Oh that song is so beautiful, when I heard it live at the Melo tour, it really made me tear up a bit.

[@LadiesandgentlemenfooFIGHTERS]

I just wanna say I got h*gh watching this video and decided to listen to the album in between your takes on the record and it was an awesome experience your analysis and descriptions are spot on cheers

[@EljohnMacaranas]

Thank you so much (and lmao I recorded the Solar Power one high so like I get it)

[@IkeReviews]

Also taylor swift listened to pure heroine before she made 1989

[@EljohnMacaranas]

I def think to a degree the cohesiveness of PH def influenced her to ensure the album felt coherent.

[@hamletvillilo5604]

Wow i feel so much nostalgia when people talk about the early and mid 10's in music, it was the time when i was obsessed with all the songs that were popular at the time. That ended in 2016, i didn't like the late 10's in music

[@EljohnMacaranas]

I think the late 2010’s were a recalibration where everyone was trying to either be meta about pop or just reject it for some alt slushie nonsense

[@hamletvillilo5604]

@@EljohnMacaranas agree 👍🏽👍

[@daphnamelnick5971]

Pure heroine is her best

[@EljohnMacaranas]

It's so good!

[@welcometodmitrysworld]

It’s not like this album was heavily inspired by Lana

[@EljohnMacaranas]

The whole record might not outwardly draw from Lana but there’s intersection in some lines feeling like responses to questions and ideas Lana’s BTD had. A very early interview from Lorde has her joke she was the Anti-Lana Del Rey which in a way going out of your way to like not be like someone is inspiration in a different font.

[@Kenzi24]

Amazing album but you really have to thank her producer just as equally as her. That's truly what made the album and "changed" the industry

[@EljohnMacaranas]

Joel Little was pretty solid back then, his work as of the late not so much

[@RJ-ek8zu]

Pure Heroine on top

[@EljohnMacaranas]

An iconic moment!

[@zzulm]

🎶 I want them back🎶 🎶 I want them back🎶 🎶what once we had🎶

[@EljohnMacaranas]

🖤🖤🖤

[@nikhilsonavane8939]

i remember listening to buzzcut season for the first time and nothing was ever the same. ah! such fond memories. maybe this is an unpopular opinion- for me pure heroine is slightly better than melodrama. idk it also might coz of the nostalgia it brings me now. pure heroine is just a masterpiece.

[@EljohnMacaranas]

Honestly, I think PH and Melo are v close in quality, the key difference between them and say Solar Power or even other competing albums is their sole focus on a subject matter. For PH, it’s teenage suburban paradise ending and for Melo, it’s getting past a first real heartbreak. Melo hit very hard for me because I’d had a proper first break up at the time of its release.

[@Elena-ce8ek]

Lorde walked so Halsey and Billie Eilish could run 🤗

[@EljohnMacaranas]

SPILL!

[@summerchild_]

"A gay Pure Heroine" im drying

[@EljohnMacaranas]

Did I lie?! Still adore BN, like I had a friend come out and realize he was gay bc of the record (me on the other hand I was already queening out to Gaga in the mid aughts)

[@summerchild_]

@EljohnMacaranas I feel like BN is more mainstream pop - butttt of course baby lesbian me was crying in her room over Heaven.

[@luizvasconcelos9398]

Hate how grammy robbed ella's best new artist

[@EljohnMacaranas]

Literally she was robbed by Bruno for AOTY in 2017, Bruno deserved a AOTY but not for that album though!

[@Kevin-rg3yc]

Damn I can’t believe it’s been a whole decade since this drop it’s official I’m entering retirement home next year 😂😂 I actually got into lorde bc I was into think-piece culture on the internet at the time and there was a big discourse/controversy that started about royals having racist undertones bc of its lyrics referencing black American hip hop culture being used as a critique on consumerism, wealth consumption, social class inequality etc and then both my older brother and twin sister were obsessed with her so I came into lorde with low key negative thoughts, then I finally listened to royals and pure heroine and I loved it, despite being a inner city NYC black teenager I did relate to the lyrics on classism, and having contemporary pop culture be the center piece to us gen z teenagers although I do think the negative hip hop racist undertones and lorde working class cosplay haven’t outright age well I still love the album and I still believe the record was needed for pop music for the time, both lorde and Lana coming in to switch things up was needed for the time

[@EljohnMacaranas]

Oh I hadn’t realized the undertones were bad. I found one of the pieces about it just after seeing the comment and damn… points were made. Tbh I think a lot of early 2010s stuff like Lana’s Born to Die aesthetic cribbing “hood culture” or her “gangster nancy sinatra” comments or Katy Perry’s Geisha disaster at the AMAs (most obviously Miley’s Bangerz phase) spoke to this weird Post-Obama “racism is over” attitude and naiveté that was shattered towards the end of the decade.

[@laincoubert7236]

where can i read more about this discourse?

[@Kevin-rg3yc]

@@EljohnMacaranasright it’s understandable why that ideology was going on at the time it did feel like we were in a era where racism felt like a thing in the past and how much so many POC cultures were globalized and commodified in that time but I think people were mistaking racism as a whole with the specific racism of that part being over bc the 2000s and early 2010s only brought in new kinds of racism

[@vvvinblue5557]

Blue Neighbourhood as gay Pure Heroine is so true

[@EljohnMacaranas]

I kinda spilled there 😭

[@kameronking4321]

Today is my birthday🎉🎉

[@EljohnMacaranas]

Happy Birthday! I’m wishing you a magical year! 🎉🎊🥳

[@vanjinathan5877]

and im riding high

[@Jeffbuckleygrace]

I like this album but it’s not the domino that started the effect

[@paduanicoc.7019]

PH change the pop landscape

[@EljohnMacaranas]

Lorde has so many sons

[@lanastan614]

I'm sorry but like Born To Die created Lorde. Lana changed pop music forever as proven by Taylor Swift and many more artists like Billie Eilish.

[@nachoj3150]

​@@lanastan614 I mean, you are a Lana fan, of course you're not going to be objective and recognize how Lorde changed pop and the influence she had in actual alternative pop

[@user-bk1ul4yz7j]

Before Lorde there was lana sorry

[@EljohnMacaranas]

I mentioned that lol

[@Belbecat]

My favourite track is Bravado, you never mention it though 🥲

[@EljohnMacaranas]

My bad 😭