Lorde is finally back, as Virgin, the New Zealand superstar’s first album in nearly four years, officially released on Friday.

Lorde looks back on a decade of growing up in public with her exhilarating and liberating fourth album, 'Virgin.'

Since then, fans have clamored for Lorde to return to the swooping, alternative synth-pop that defined her early career, which means the stakes are particularly high for Virgin. She has answered the call with an album that isn’t trying to capture something from the past,