Pure Heroine by Lorde

Rage Against the Machine

Anger is a gift.

It would be interesting to see how many suburban kids learned about Che Guevara, or that the FBI targeted Martin Luther King for his opposition to the Vietnam War, from Rage Against the Machine’s first album. While other ’90s albums, like Nirvana’s Nevermind, helped bring underground styles into the mainstream, Rage brought The Weather Underground.

A photograph of Rage Against the Machine.

Like the revolutionaries, MCs, and hard rock that inspired it, Rage Against the Machine exists in all caps. Its most lasting lyrics—“Some of those that work forces/Are the same that burn crosses” (“Killing in the Name”), “Anger is a gift” (“Freedom”)—have the instant memorability of a protest chant. The immediacy isn’t just a metaphor for their message; it’s a way to spread the word and put power into the hands of the people. It’s an album you could listen to at the gym or build a syllabus around.

Pure Heroine

Lorde

A new kind of teen pop, wise beyond its years—featuring one of the biggest hits of the 21st century.

During the aughts, the party-hearty teen-pop pantheon was a sea of Auto-Tuned vocals, sugary-sweet lyrics, misappropriated school uniforms, and twerking Disney stars. Then came Lorde. On Pure Heroine, her 2013 debut album, the Auckland-born singer-songwriter born Ella Yelich-O’Connor relied instead on restrained, almost growled vocals set to skeletal, programmed beats. She focuses on the realities of suburban teenage ennui from the very first track, “Tennis Court,” which opens with the line “Don’t you think that it’s boring how people talk?”

The album’s centerpiece—one of the biggest hits of the 21st century—is “Royals,” which describes the inherent disconnect of being a broke schoolkid listening to luxe-life rap tunes: “But every song's like, ‘Gold teeth, Grey Goose, trippin’ in the bathroom/We don’t care/We’re driving Cadillacs in our dreams.” And the album’s success made room for a new raft of teenage stars wise beyond their years, including Billie Eilish and Olivia Rodrigo, who could make music as moody and menacing as adolescence itself.

“I was really proud of baby me. I was like, ‘This is awesome. Good on you. You were asking real questions of your world.’”

Lorde

on relistening to Pure Heroine as an adult

Apple Music 100 Best Albums

Rage Against the Machine

Pure Heroine