Infinite Shuffle

181 – Lorde

It’s tough to decide which is more impressive about Lorde’s full-length debut, Pure Heroine — the music itself or the fact that the singer-songwriter behind Lorde is only 16 years old!

The New Zealand native, whose actual name is Ella Yelich-O’Connor, had record labels in a bidding war not long after she entered her teens. At 13, she signed with Universal and a year later she was working with the label’s songwriters.

She put out The Love Club EP in November 2012 and followed that with the single, “Royals,” which hit the top of the charts in New Zealand and also became the first female solo artist to reach No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Alternative Songs chart.

The song is definitely the peak of Pure Heroine, but it’s far from the only standout track. Throughout the album, Yelich-O’Connor mixes in a variety of influences. The opener, “Tennis Court”, calls to mind a little bit of M.I.A. But she also invokes artists such as Zola Jesus — with a far less haunting tone — on “400 Lux”, “Ribs”, “Team” and “Buzzcut Season”.

Still in high school — or whatever the Kiwis call it over there — Yelich-O’Connor is a rising star and has only begun to tap her seemingly endless potential. It’ll be fun to see what she can accomplish once she’s able to focus full time on her music.

Up to this point, every band or artist I’ve reviewed can lay claim to putting out at least one album that I have absolutely loved from beginning to end — well, except for Bat For Lashes.

That isn’t quite the case with Ladyhawke. Her self-titled debut includes some of my favorite songs from the past year, but it also has a lot of filler I could do without.

Ladyhawke is the stage name of Phillipa “Pip” Brown, a 30-year-old singer/songwriter from New Zealand who looks and sounds like a hybrid of a slew of popular ’80s singers — such as Pat Benatar, Debbie Harry, Cyndi Lauper, Kim Wilde, Debbie Gibson, Terri Nunn and Dale Bozzio.

And like her predecessors, Ladyhawke produces solid new wave/indie rock tinged with plenty of electronica to keep the hipsters dancing. The problem is that, while her singles are incredibly catchy, she doesn’t quite sustain it for the entirety of the album.

That’s not to say I wouldn’t have a problem with repeated listens to Ladyhawke, but more than likely, I’ll stick to just playing my faves, which include “Back of the Van,” “My Delirium” and “Paris Is Burning.”

Just go to her MySpace page and try not to get hooked on that trio of songs.

Ladyhawke – Back Of The Van

Ladyhawke – My Delerium