"She's never beating the pretentious allegations" – Backlash erupts as multiple fans report Lorde's CD not working

New Zealand singer and songwriter Lorde dropped her fourth studio album, Virgin, on June 27, 2025, on music streaming platforms Apple Music and Spotify. Additionally, a physical copy of the album on a transparent CD was also made available for her fans worldwide, but only at selected retailers.

However, earlier this week, many listeners complained that certain traditional CD players, including Sony’s Discman and car CD systems, didn't recognize the disc as playable. One of the first reports came from the TikTok user @elyxirtalkssmack, which was later circulated across other social media platforms, including Reddit.

“Lorde's transparent CDs for ’Virgin’ apparently do not actually work in CD players,” Reddit user @DebateObjective2787 reposted the 1:45-minute TikTok video on the r/popculturechat community page, using the subtitle ‘Celebrity fail.’

Under the now-viral Reddit post, user @stantlerqueen commented:

“I like her music, but she’s never beating the pretentious allegations.”

Many people joined the conversation and shared similar reactions on other social networking sites such as X.

“Why is Lorde selling non-functional CDs... like is this capitalism or am I missing the artistic decision made here?” a netizen asked.

“Wait, this is sick,” another netizen wrote.

“I saw the packaging for this and was like... how is that possible. Now I realize it's because it isn't, and I was right. Take the L, Lorde!!!!!” a person wrote.

Others continued to weigh in and put Lorde under fire.

“I am so frustrated by this. Not only the lack of a proper CD tray insert/ spine (so it looks nice in my collection), but mainly because my CD seems to be BLANK and won't play anything. What is the point of this????” a fan asked.

“Well, considering that her last release didn't even have a CD for environmental reasons (don't know if it got a backlash from people expecting a physical CD), I think I'm going to go with a playable CD unless she's really that stupid,” another fan wrote.

“I see people saying their clear CD from Lorde won't play, but looking at this photo closely, you can see that there *is* audio data present on the disc. I'm guessing that if your CD player has a clear lid and is not completely enclosed, the laser will have trouble reading the CD,” a third explained.

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So far, the artist hasn't addressed the allegation that her CDs have been failing on certain players.

More about the CD playing issue surrounding Lorde’s new album

According to digitalmusicnews.com, the Virgin CD by Lorde comes inside a jewel case with a two-page full-color booklet. The disc is made up of transparent plastic, and all the components are described as recyclable. It comes amid the singer’s declaration of “full transparency.”

The outlet noted that the disc failure on certain devices stems from the use of reflective technology or a coating in place of a reflective aluminum layer on traditional CDs. It stated that this coating allows the laser to “bounce back to the optical pickup.”

As a result, the new, entirely transparent format, although unique, is not universally compatible with conventional CD players. Elsewhere, the publication cited that the disc might have used a dichroic/ polarized reflective player, which reflects particular infrared wavelengths used by certain players, but not all.

Virgin was released on June 27 as a full-length (34:51) studio album under the labels of Universal New Zealand and Republic Records. It was preceded by the release of the singles, including What Was That, Man of the Year, and Hammer.

Lorde co-produced the 11-track album with American record executive and DJ, Jim-E Stack, alongside Dan Nigro and Buddy Ross. Virgin came four years after her third studio album, Solar Power, and is a step away from its indie folk sound to an electronic sound.

Another difference between the two albums is that Solar Power did not have a physical CD to reduce environmental impact and waste, as opposed to Virgin, which comes with a transparent and seemingly recyclable disc.

Lorde will embark on the Ultrasound World Tour between September and December 2025 to support her new album, across Europe and North America.

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