NEW YORK (AP) — Fans of the New Zealand singer-songwriter Lorde have long commended the artist for her visceral pop craft. Her music, to certain ears, sounds like freedom. On her new album, it is as though Lorde is able to hear it, too.
On “Virgin,” the singer born Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O’Connor's fourth studio album and first in four years, pop hits are devoid of any anxious filtering. She is raw.
When Lorde first emerged as a gothic popstar — with “Royals,” and its critique of celebrity culture and hyper consumerism — she did so with prescience. Her sparse production style and cursive-singing had come from the future, and its influence would be felt for many years to follow. Her debut, 2013's “Pure Heroine,” suggested that she possessed something her contemporaries did not; the synesthesia synth-pop “Melodrama” in 2017 all but confirmed her greatness.
She took a step back from all that for the sleepy sunshine of 2021's “Solar Power,” and then took another — veering away from the spotlight all together. It seemed that this outsider dynamo had distanced herself from fame in an attempt to centralize artmaking once again. (Later, as it was revealed in a “Rolling Stone” cover story, she was mourning the longest romantic relationship of her life, making up the bulk of her twenties, and that she was overcoming an eating disorder and anxiety through MDMA and psilocybin therapy.) “Virgin” was born after that period of reflection.
Musically, “Virgin” threads the needle from “Melodrama” to the current moment. The lead single, the synthpop “What Was That,” is a reserved derivation of her previous work but no doubt a banger; on the syncopated rhythms of “Hammer,” she's matured her racecar-fast pop. There's a new malleability here. She sings, “Some days I’m a woman / Some days I’m a man.”
An album standout, the metamorphic “Shapeshifter,” possesses a tension between organic and electronic sounds that continue onto “Man of the Year,” with its bass and cello contributions from frequent collaborator Dev Hynes.
Credit is due to her new production partners Jim-E Stack (Bon Iver,Danielle Haim) and Daniel Nigro (Olivia Rodrigo,Chappell Roan).
Thematically, Lorde's never been more fluid and feral than on “Virgin,” in her descriptions of gender experience ("Favourite Daughter”) and sexual autonomy (“Current Affairs,” with lyrics that might scandalize fans not expecting messy eroticism. “You tasted my underwear,” she sings, partnered with a sample of the dancehall record “Morning Love” by Dexta Daps.)
For a singer who has always performed physical pop songs, “Virgin” is her most bodily work to date as well. Take, for example, the shortest song on the record, the vocoder-affected a cappella performance of “Clearblue” — a play on the popular pregnancy test brand, and not the only place where motherhood appears on the album. (Fertility is another theme; the album cover features an X-ray of Lorde's pelvis while wearing jeans; in it, an intrauterine device is visible.)
This is a new Lorde — a more self-assured artist, warts and all — but one that recognizes and evolves her sonic signatures. Now, like in the early days of her career, “Virgin” is both avant-garde and pop radio ready, a confluence of unlike features that mirror its messaging. Only now, she sounds unshackled.
Lorde performs at the Glastonbury Festival in Worthy Farm, Somerset, England, Monday, June 27, 2022. (AP Photo/Scott Garfitt)
ALEPPO, Syria (AP) — First responders on Sunday entered a contested neighborhood in Syria’ s northern city of Aleppo after days of deadly clashes between government forces and Kurdish-led forces. Syrian state media said the military was deployed in large numbers.
The clashes broke out Tuesday in the predominantly Kurdish neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud, Achrafieh and Bani Zaid after the government and the Syrian Democratic Forces, the main Kurdish-led force in the country, failed to make progress on how to merge the SDF into the national army. Security forces captured Achrafieh and Bani Zaid.
The fighting between the two sides was the most intense since the fall of then-President Bashar Assad to insurgents in December 2024. At least 23 people were killed in five days of clashes and more than 140,000 were displaced amid shelling and drone strikes.
The U.S.-backed SDF, which have played a key role in combating the Islamic State group in large swaths of eastern Syria, are the largest force yet to be absorbed into Syria's national army. Some of the factions that make up the army, however, were previously Turkish-backed insurgent groups that have a long history of clashing with Kurdish forces.
The Kurdish fighters have now evacuated from the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood to northeastern Syria, which is under the control of the SDF. However, they said in a statement they will continue to fight now that the wounded and civilians have been evacuated, in what they called a “partial ceasefire.”
The neighborhood appeared calm Sunday. The United Nations said it was trying to dispatch more convoys to the neighborhoods with food, fuel, blankets and other urgent supplies.
Government security forces brought journalists to tour the devastated area, showing them the damaged Khalid al-Fajer Hospital and a military position belonging to the SDF’s security forces that government forces had targeted.
The SDF statement accused the government of targeting the hospital “dozens of times” before patients were evacuated. Damascus accused the Kurdish-led group of using the hospital and other civilian facilities as military positions.
On one street, Syrian Red Crescent first responders spoke to a resident surrounded by charred cars and badly damaged residential buildings.
Some residents told The Associated Press that SDF forces did not allow their cars through checkpoints to leave.
“We lived a night of horror. I still cannot believe that I am right here standing on my own two feet,” said Ahmad Shaikho. “So far the situation has been calm. There hasn’t been any gunfire.”
Syrian Civil Defense first responders have been disarming improvised mines that they say were left by the Kurdish forces as booby traps.
Residents who fled are not being allowed back into the neighborhood until all the mines are cleared. Some were reminded of the displacement during Syria’s long civil war.
“I want to go back to my home, I beg you,” said Hoda Alnasiri.
Associated Press journalist Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut contributed to this report.
Sandbag barriers used as fighting positions by Kurdish fighters, left inside a destroyed mosque in the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, where clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters have been taking place in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
Burned vehicles at one of the Kurdish fighters positions at the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, where clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters have been taking place in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
People flee the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, where clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters have been taking place in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
A Syrian military police convoy enters the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, where clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters have been taking place in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
Burned vehicles and ammunitions left at one of the Kurdish fighters positions at the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, where clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters have been taking place in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
