Lorde celebrates 10th anniversary of ‘Pure Heroine’
New Zealand-born singer-songwriter Lorde has reflected on her seismic debut album, Pure Heroine, a decade on from its release.
In a newsletter addressed to her fans, Lorde described the debut as a “sweet album” and, respecting the crucial breakthrough it provided, added that she has “deep respect for the vision of the little one making it.”
“It felt like I pulled everything off by the skin of my teeth,” she wrote. “Every week was the most exciting week of my whole life, I was so tired and still didn’t have a winter coat and took everyone clamouring for a piece of me completely for granted. I had zero cultural context, had no idea if an interview or TV show was huge or small, and so breezed through it all truly not giving a fuck.”
On the supporting tour, which swiftly followed the album’s release in September 2013, Lorde met masses of fans for the first time. Describing this aspect of the release as her “favourite part,” she said there were “hours and hours of hugs after the show. [That’s] where it started to feel real for me.”
Lorde wrote Pure Heroine alongside Joel Little, the musician famed as a member of Goodnight Nurse. Following his success writing with the Kiwi singer, he began an earnest, full-time songwriting career.
Offering some words for Little, Lorde continued: “When you’re a teenager, you’re particularly sensitive to adults being condescending to you, not respecting the specific and finely tuned skills you have because of the ones you don’t. From the first day meeting Joel, I knew that he would never give me that feeling.”
The album immediately captured the imagination of new fans worldwide and became one of the year’s best-selling releases, striking number one in Australia, Croatia and New Zealand. Meanwhile, it reached the top five in the US and the UK, Ireland, Canada and Norway.
Listen to ‘Royals’, the lead single from Pure Heroine, below.
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