Why Lorde's Clear CD Is So Hard To Play

Lorde released her fourth studio album 'Virgin' on 27 June 2025, and it has been making headlines with a clear CD version which has been shown to be unplayable on many CD players. Here we have a 40 minute deep dive on how that's the case, and how the problem might be mitigated from Adrian's Digital Basement. The Clear CDs are still available to buy, and the album has an 82% rating on Metacritic - here's more from the video after the album in full...
 

I saw news about a new "clear" CD released by the artist Lorde. I wanted to see this for myself and see if any of my CD players could even play this disc, and if so, figure out WHY it is likely to have problems playing in people's CD players. 0:00 Intro 1:09 Test equipment 21:03 Lorde's clear CD Test NEC player 33:53 Lorde's clear CD Test DVD player
 

More from Adrian's Digital Basement

Get the album here: https://uk.lorde.store/products/virgin-cd-clear-disc

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