Lorde Emerges From Quarantine To Share New Album News

To quote singer-songwriter and one of New Zealand's finest talents, Lorde, the COVID-19 pandemic has sent the world into a "wild time." I'll say! Life has never been weirder, but at least there's hope on the horizon: a new Lorde record. After famously dropping off the grid after wrapping up her Melodrama tour in 2018, Lorde sent fans a surprise, extremely poetic email on the evening of May 19, complete with life updates and plenty of teasing for the new album.

Lorde has been in recalibration mode. She's been grieving the loss of her dog, Pearl, growing out her hair for spiritual apotheosis, cooking, and of course, writing new music. "I knew I needed a break from touring at the end of the last cycle," she wrote. "I was finding the combination of brutal stage fright and having no fixed home and no connection with what I ate or where I lived extremely grim."

Lorde and producer Jack Antonoff linked up once again back in December, and to her surprise, her grief made for "happy, playful" sessions. Her and Antonoff have since switched to FaceTiming for the duration of the process, but Lorde promised fans that the record will be worth the wait.

"I get this feeling when I make bread, or put my seedlings in after the last frost, or even when I wait for a particular package to arrive. Waiting, the thing that felt so pointless and annoying when I was young, is now this kind of delicious activity," she wrote. "In my opinion, the greatest treat I can give you is work that will last ten, twenty, thirty years. And that kind of work takes time. So if you can, I’d like for you to try tuning in to the time spent waiting for something of the highest quality to arrive. Enjoy the sensation as it builds. When the moment comes, our wave will crest super fucking high. I can tell you, this new thing, it’s got its own colours now. If you know anything about my work, you’ll know what that means."