What Makes Pure Heroine the Best Debut Pop Album of All Time?

Don't you think that it’s boring how people talk?

Ella Yelich-O’Connor didn’t come from money. She doesn’t adorn herself with diamonds or bleach her teeth white to obtain the perfect Hollywood smile. In fact, she spurns the redundancy of white-collar conversations and lightheartedly and satirically pokes fun at industry elitism.

In every quantifiable way, Ella O'Conner was a typical Kiwi teen. Despite her seemingly mundane adolescence, Lorde lets us know right away that she’s different from her peers.

As she rose to mainstream prevailance, she garnered recocnition for her twangy cover of Kings of Leon at age 12, signing with Universal Records New Zealand as a cover artist. At 14, she was honing her craft by proofreading her mom Sonja's masters thesis.

Ella wasn't content with being a cover artist. By 16, the lyrical prodigy released her first studio album Pure Heroine, which was written with assistance from Joel Little. Radio-grade "Royals", which was written in under an hour and recorded the same week, topped the charts in 2013, instantly propelling her into the limelight. But as any real listener will tell you, it isn’t the best song on the album by far. The extended version of the album boasts five additional tracks, including title track from EP The Love Club and a cover of The Replacements "Swinging Party."

Like New Zealand afternoons bleeding into summer nights, the freshman album blends alternative pop instrumentals with beats to create a cohesive concept album. Well versed in romance, teenage angst, and life in the suburbs, Lorde tackles the apprehensions that even the healthiest childhood can bring. "My mother’s love is choking me," she sings, "I think of words that hang around my head // It's time the kid got free.”

What makes youth liminal is that it isn't everlasting. Lorde articulates her fear of aging with a certain poise that connects with teen listeners and leaves older fans aching with nostalgia.

She masks anxiety and apprehension in synthesizer-induced dream pop, with vaporwave tracks from the hauntingly down-tempo "Buzzcut Season" to the trip-hop single "No Better", which is finally available on Spotify after years of being an Apple Music exclusive.

While her initial success is often attributed to Jack Antonoff, it was lesser known Joel Little who produced this record. Fans on Tumblr idolized her as a less problematic counterpart to Lana Del Rey or a more marketable Sky Ferreira.

At the time, the charts were dominated by big labels, and Pure Heroine was competing with long established talent such as Miley Cyrus and Katy Perry, who had long since cornered the pop market.

Pop was making a moody transition. Antonoff's band fun. had made waves two years prior charting "We Are Young" and "Carry On", and Gotye had just dropped "Somebody That I Used to Know" before disapearing into oblivion. Still, she didn't have much in common musically with new female acts like Ellie Goulding or Kacey Musgraves.

Despite her age, Lorde effortlessly manipulates words to portray the ultimate synesthetic listening experience.

The singer is transparent about the record’s influence by acts such as James Blake or Florence and the Machine. But she’s stuck to her own writing, indulging in the fantasy of becoming like the aristocracy she must impress.

At a New Zealand concert, Stevie Nicks told the crowd that she thinks Lorde is “so very talented,” and that she wished the young superstar was in attendance at the show. She then went on to bestow the highest form of praise imaginable, saying, “If she had been my age, and our age, she probably would have been the third girl in Fleetwood Mac.”

David Bowie also called Lorde the “future of music” paving the way for acts like Billie Eilish and Mitski. It was this recognition that enabled her to perform "Life on Mars?" at The BRIT Awards following his death in 2016.

But Lorde made an impression on contemporary stars. She was even endorsed by Kanye West, who produced a remake of "Yellow Flicker Beat" for The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 in 2014. However, the Melodrama era later estranged their relationship, when Lorde accused Kanye of stealing her floating box stage design concept.

She posted a photo on her Instagram story with the caption reading, "I'm proud of the work I do and it's flattering when other artists are inspired by it, to the extent that they choose to try it on for themselves. But don't steal — not from women or anyone else — not in 2018 or ever."

Lorde is known for her murky and elusive relationship to social media. Most sources insist that her designers had worked on tour with Ye in the past, further muddying the waters.

The feud is a reminder how intelligence is a magnet for eccentricity. How many other artists have created a debut record with no skips? How many subgenres can she legitimize with 10 songs?

So broad was her reach that her stage persona was spoofed in an episode of South Park. “I am Lorde, ya ya ya.” No offense was taken on the side of the singer, who called it a “score.”

The same teen who had yet to fly in a plane before the release of her EP went certified platinum in the United Kingdom, double platinum in Canada, and triple platinum in the US and Australia, selling more than 5 million copies worldwide.

Music captures both time and emotion, and Lorde immortalized a moment of youth that manages to maintain relevance at every stage of life.

Lorde was and is the ruler of her own world–the leader of a new regime. She forces her authority on no one, which is why she’s always been the people’s choice.