David

A Dork five-star record, 'David' closes Lorde's fourth album with a moment of shimmering vulnerability. Written with Jim-E Stack in 2022, it was one of the first songs created for 'Virgin', and it carries the weight of that early reckoning. The track reflects on an abusive relationship, the anguish of having given too much away paired with a declaration of freedom from domination. Lorde sings of making someone God because it was all she knew how to do, the lyric arriving with unrefined clarity.

The song questions whether love will return, whether trust can be rebuilt, the refrain casting each prior moment on 'Virgin' in new light. She does not belong to anyone. It is a realisation the entire album has been hurtling towards, a turning point where she begins to separate who she is from who she was expected to be. The emotional intensity hints at the complexity of a relationship that shaped her, the album's title and the raw unfolding of feeling throughout suggesting the cost of that entanglement.

'David' leaves Lorde holding the tools to reinvent herself again, the lesson earned through excavation rather than retreat. It is a poignant close to a record that finds beauty in diving headfirst into the mess, reflection as a means of propelling forwards.