On Lorde’s latest single “Hammer,” the singer is giving fans a front-row seat to her rebirth.
The track, which she declared an “ode to city life and horniness” on Instagram, wastes no time delivering on that promise. Lorde immediately places the listener in New York City with the opening line, “There's a heat in the pavement / My mercury's raising,” before following it up with, “Don't know if it's love or if it's ovulation / When you're holding a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” Maybe it’s the hormones or the energy of the city, but whatever it is, Lorde is ready to hook up with the next person who looks her way.
With a new era comes a new lust for life and embracing the shifts in her gender identity:
Now I know you don't deal much in love and affection / But I really do think there could be a connection / I burn and I sing and I scheme and I dance / Some days I'm a woman, some days I'm a man
This isn’t the first time Lorde has made reference to her gender. In a May 2025 interview with Rolling Stone, the singer revealed that she considers herself to be “in the middle gender-wise.” Her previous single “Man Of The Year” expands on this, as the song chronicles her journey to becoming the man she needs and filling her ex’s shoes. For some, reckoning with gender would be a cause for confusion, but Lorde has never been more in her element. On the chorus she sings:
I might have been born again / I'm ready to feel like I don't have thе answers / There's pеace in the madness over our heads / Let it carry me on
We’re back in the NYC streets for verse two, where she tells tales of Canal Street piercings and getting her aura read. “It's a beautiful life, so I play truant,” she says, comparing herself to a teen playing hooky, “I jerk tears and they pay me to do it.”
But before she arrived at this place of freedom, Lorde alludes to her past struggles, singing:
Let it break me down till I'm just a wreck / Till I'm just a voice living in your head / It's a f*cked up world, been to hell and back / But I've sent you a postcard from the edge / The edge
Knowing her positive outlook is a direct result of her tumultuous past makes the rest of the song hit that much harder.
“Hammer” is the third single off Lorde’s upcoming album Virgin, out June 27.
