New Music Friday – June 27, 2025
This New Music Friday is big. This week’s headlining release zooms in on one of the 21st century’s biggest performers. There are plenty of exciting drops today. Read on to view a complete list of top singles, EPs and albums out now.
The Best of New Music Friday:
Lorde – Virgin
It’s been four years since Lorde’s last studio album Solar Power, a record that pivoted away from the singer’s usual musical formula. On Virgin, the now 28-year-old performer is leaning into the newest and freshest standout production techniques in pop music. Lorde has openly discussed being influenced by her friend Charli xcx, making this a certified mid-2020s pop album: it’s loud, beat-forward and filled with one liners. While Virgin doesn’t exactly feel innovative, it does feel like the right record for Lorde to release right now.
Lorde has faced lots of pressure to admit she’s not the same teenager who released Pure Heroine–but then again, who among us walks around in 2025 with the same mentality they had in 2013? Regardless of whether or not Lorde actually needed to speak on this obvious fact, she has come forward in interviews and in her lyrics on Virgin explaining who she is these days.
“Some days I’m a woman, some days I’m a man,” Lorde sings on opening track “Hammer.” Lorde has said she feels like she lands somewhere in the middle of the gender spectrum (or the lack thereof such a spectrum), and valiantly explores that feeling throughout this record. The music video for single “Man of the Year” features the singer binding her chest with tape, something many folks who have experienced gender dysphoria understand. It’s the practice of making the chest look more masculine. Lorde does it here to express her own struggles with identity: and it’s arguably one of the boldest things she’s done in her career–a massive highlight in this new era for her music.
Elsewhere on Virgin, the song “Shapeshifter,” combines Lorde’s take on the modern pop sound with many of the thematic sequences she’s expressed on various hit songs throughout her career. “I’ve been up on a pedestal // But tonight I just wanna fall,” she says on the choruses and also for the final minute of the song, all while her overdubbed vocals repeat those words as the music speeds up, peaking with a crescendo of racing beats, celestial electronics and a string arrangements. Jim E. Stack, who has worked with Bon Iver, produced this song (and the record). His influence is most apparent here.
Virgin appears to be the result of many realizations Lorde has had: It’s okay to not have things totally figured out in your 20s (or really any age), self-expression fluctuates (that’s normal and should be more widely accepted) and that vulnerability is courageous.
Lorde is letting the world see a lot of her right now. She doesn’t owe that to anyone. Regardless, she has spoken about her regrets in music, what visions she has for the present and future and has somehow become more candid than ever before. Virgin may not be a masterpiece in creative songwriting, but maybe Lorde never meant for it to be. Perhaps she just wanted to express herself freely in all the ways she sees fit–and she’s accomplished that.
New Music Friday Top Picks:
Bardo – “Sad Boy” [Stones Throw]
The Beths – “No Joy” [ANTI-]
Blonde Redhead – The Shadow of the Guest [Section1]
Durand Jones & The Indications – Flowers [Dead Oceans]
Frankie Cosmos – Different Talking [Sub Pop]
Mike Kota – “My Love is Free” [Self-released]
Smut – Tomorrow Comes Crashing [Bayonet]
Reneé Rapp – “Mad” [Interscope]
Why Bonnie – “Headlight Sun (Bedroom Version)” [Firetalk]
Which of these tracks from New Music Friday will you add to your favorite playlists today? Any we missed? Let us know in the comments or on Instagram!
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