Share

The return of Lorde: everything you need to know about her new album

accreditation
0:00
play article
Subscribers can listen to this article
New Zealand singer Lorde is back with a beachy new track, Solar Power. (PHOTO: Gallo Images/Getty Images)
New Zealand singer Lorde is back with a beachy new track, Solar Power. (PHOTO: Gallo Images/Getty Images)

After a four-year break, fans are celebrating the return of the Royals singer and her new sunshine-soaked track and upcoming album.

Solar Power

(PHOTO: Solar Power)
The cover of her new album shows the singer running across a beach. (PHOTO: Solar Power)

The 24-year-old New Zealand songbird’s lead single off her new album, Solar Power, sees her frolicking around in a yellow dress on a beach.

On the song’s release she told fans in an email, “Her feet are bare at all times. She's sexy, playful, feral and free. She's a modern girl in a deadstock bikini, in touch with her past and her future, vibrating at the highest level when summer comes around. Her skin is glowing, her lovers are many. I'm completely obsessed with her, and soon you will be too.”

Phoebe Bridgers and Clairo, as well as a few male singers from New Zealand, contribute backing vocals – the first time Lorde (real name Ella Yelich-O'Connor) has added other voices on a track of hers.

Celebration of Nature

Her third album is a “celebration of the natural world and an attempt at immortalising the deep, transcendent feelings I have when I’m outdoors”.

She revealed that her best friend, Ophelia Mikkelson Jones  took the cover photo of her running in a bikini in a spontaneous moment of joy on the beach.

The album – which Lorde describes as “happy, playful music” – is due out on 20 August and she can’t wait for fans to hear it. 

'I want this album to be your summer companion, the one you pump on the drive to the beach. The one that lingers on your skin like a tan as the months get cooler again.'
Lorde

The Antonoff influence

(PHOTO: Gallo Images/Getty Images)
Lorde performing in Washington, DC in April 2018 as part of her Melodrama World Tour. (PHOTO: Gallo Images/Getty Images)

She’s teamed up again with acclaimed US producer Jack Antonoff, who co-wrote and co-produced her last album.

“He came over to work in the studio in Auckland and I went to Los Angeles,” she told fans last year. “It flowed and a thing started to take shape. Then the world shut down and we FaceTimed.”

Solar Power marks a sonic departure from 2017’s largely break-up album, Melodrama; and her debut, Pure Heroine, which dealt largely with the angst and ecstasies of being a teenager.

Jack has worked with Taylor Swift and was behind Lana Del Rey’s Grammy-nominated Norman F*****g Rockwell!. 

SOURCES: COSMOPOLITAN.COM, INSIDER.COM

We live in a world where facts and fiction get blurred
Who we choose to trust can have a profound impact on our lives. Join thousands of devoted South Africans who look to News24 to bring them news they can trust every day. As we celebrate 25 years, become a News24 subscriber as we strive to keep you informed, inspired and empowered.
Join News24 today
heading
description
username
Show Comments ()