Grace Byron at the LARB:
The press cycle preceding Lorde’s new album, Virgin, was one of the most scrutinized of its kind in some time. She has been pressed, during junkets, for more information after saying she doesn’t feel like a man or woman. Fans, editors, and news aggregators gobble up the two or three throwaway lines published in short profiles in magazines like Rolling Stone, Vogue, and GQ. No one mentions the journalists soliciting these quotes—unless fans take them to task for portraying their idols in a negative light. Hero worship can easily obscure the dirt beneath the mythology of a pop star.
As of late, there are few paths for the diva. Her agency is always exaggerated by fans and denied by detractors. In anticipation of her new album, Lorde has been releasing voice notes to fans via a special texting service. It’s as if she’s talking just to you—one-on-one like old pals, sitting down at the tennis court and talking things out. She is a queen of revelation, someone who would like to dispense the mystical wisdom of old à la Florence + the Machine, Kate Bush, or Patti Smith. That’s a tough sell when she still writes with the wide-eyed naivete of a girl discovering the world for the first time.
more here.
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