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The Lorde has risen from New Zealand to give us a new album. Virgin, her upcoming fourth solo record, was introduced with the first single, “What Was That,” full of references to her old work. Second single “Man of the Year” is out at midnight on May 29, following a teaser livestreamed on Instagram along with the track list. Thank you for these gifts, dear Lorde. Below, everything we yet know about the new pop bible.
What’s the track list?
Lorde confirmed the track list at a fan event in Auckland on May 27, during which she also previewed “Man of the Year.”
1. Hammer
2. What Was That
3. Shapeshifter
4. Man of the Year
5. Favourite Daughter
6. Current Affairs
7. Clearblue
8. GRWM
9. Broken Glass
10. If She Could See Me Now
11. David
Who worked on it?
Lorde is leaving behind her closest collaborator on both Melodrama and Solar Power, Jack Antonoff, in favor of a new crew: Bon Iver collaborator Jim-E Stack and Olivia Rodrigo producer Dan Nigro, who both worked on “What Was That.” There’s also singer-songwriter Fabiana Palladino, Mk.gee wingman Andrew Aged, Frank Ocean acolyte Buddy Ross, and Devonté Hynes, known as Blood Orange.
What is Virgin about?
Lorde, in interviews, emphasized the messiness of the album. In her Rolling Stone cover story, she called the songs “rugged.” “There’s going to be a lot of people who don’t think I’m a good girl anymore, a good woman. It’s over,” she said. “It will be over for a lot of people, and then for some people, I will have arrived. I’ll be where they always hoped I’d be.” She confirmed that it was somewhat of a breakup album, saying, “It was so painful, as they are, but there was real dignity to it and grace and a lot of respect. It continues to be a relationship that I cherish.” She also said the album was written during a time in her life when “my gender got way more expansive.” Is she nonbinary? Chappell Roan asked and didn’t get a straight answer.
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In an interview with DocumentJournal on May 1, Lorde described a bolder approach to writing lyrics for the album. “We were working in the East Village, and we walked past this flyer. I think it was for joining a band or something, and it said, ‘Do you have the stones?’ And I was like, ‘Whoa, that’s tight,’” she said. “The stones felt like, Do you have the sort of touchstones or the talismans to go there? Seeing that as I was also coming into my masculinity a bit more as well. That became the thing we would say to each other while making music. When there was a crossroads where we’d want to take it there but we were scared, we’d be like, ‘Do we have the stones?’ And then we wrote it into a lyric, and I got it on a hat.”
Body image and disordered eating reappear, both on records and in interviews. On Charli XCX’s “Girl, so confusing (remix),” Lorde sings that she was “at war with my body, I tried to starve myself thinner but then I gained all the weight back.” Then, on “What Was That,” she says she’s going to “make a meal I won’t eat.” “This album is a by-product of that process of fully coming into my body and feeling the fullness of my power,” Lorde told DocumentJournal. “I’m not stealing from myself. I often would think about not eating very much as I felt like every bite of food I had was stolen.”
What about the visuals?
The album art is an X-ray of a blue pelvis in jeans, including a zipper, a button, and a belt buckle, still visible, along with an IUD.
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In the music video for “What Was That,” Lorde wanders around New York, before ultimately arriving at Washington Square Park with a slew of fans.
Is she going on tour?
Lorde’s Ultrasound tour hits the road September 17 in Austin and runs through December 9 in Stockholm. Blood Orange, the Japanese House, Nilüfer Yanya, Chanel Beads, Empress Of, Jim-E Stack, and Oklou will open throughout the tour.
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When is the release date?
Virgin is coming out June 27. Amen.
