Lorde’s ambitious rollout of her 2025 album Virgin came with visual flair—vinyl variants like “bathwater” pressings and a transparent CD. But fans say the see-through CD is more concept than function.
Across TikTok, Reddit, and X, listeners are reporting that the clear ‘Virgin’ CD won’t play on standard or older CD players, especially in cars and portable devices. “Seems like older sensors can’t read it,” one TikTok user commented after their stereo failed to recognize the disc. The frustration? This is the only physical CD version currently available.
While the clear disc fits the album’s theme of “full transparency,” fans say it sacrifices usability. Some CD players won’t even accept the disc, while others simply display error messages.
A likely culprit, according to fan speculation, is the lack of reflective material on the transparent design. Many older players can’t track such modern formats. Ironically, newer high-end players seem to handle it better, but that excludes a large part of Lorde’s fanbase.
Still, Lorde remains reflective and grounded. In a candid newsletter, she shared a surreal Glastonbury debut of Virgin, a psychedelic epiphany at Four Tet’s DJ set, and hope that Virgin Deluxe—with B-sides—may arrive soon.