For four years, fans of Lorde have experienced a drought of new music from the popular artist. In 2021, the New Zealand native dropped her most recent LP, “Solar Power,” which was a sun-soaked, coconut-infused anomaly in her jewel-toned discography. Four years before that, she released “Melodrama” and four years before that, her debut album, “Pure Heroine.”
This predictable album rollout pattern held over hungry fans as they waited (not so) patiently for a fourth album. And on Wednesday, April 9, they were finally fed.
After wiping all of her social media accounts, Lorde (Ella Yelich O’Connor) posted a 15-second clip set to an audio titled “WWT,” an acronym for the song’s title, “What Was That.” The song plays over a video of Lorde strutting and then running through New York City’s Washington Square Park, headphones on, lip-syncing the lyrics.
To confirm the upcoming release, Lorde posted to Instagram on Wednesday a photo with the caption, “My new song What Was That. Out soon.”
For fans, the teaser means more than just new music. It hints at the return of the moody, introspective synth-pop that magnetized audiences when Lorde’s debut album “Pure Heroine” came out.
In “What Was That,” she sings, “Since I was seventeen / I gave you everything / Now we wake from a dream / Well baby, what was that?” It sounds distinctly Lorde–vivid, danceable and a bit jaded. Far from optimistic, it is much more “Melodrama” than “Solar Power.” Even at 28, well past her teenage years, no one captures the adolescent experience quite like Lorde.
The singer foreshadowed her return to her roots in dark pop in a letter sent out to fans through Tumblr in September 2023. The letter reads like something in between a poem and a diary entry, and it delves into her emotional and physical pain while navigating heartbreak.
“I’m living with heartbreak again. It’s different but the same,” Lorde wrote to fans. She wrote of the vulnerability she pours into her music. “Every time I put something into words just as I see it, set it to the right music, a knot comes loose in me. But it hurts too, confronting the knots.”
It is safe to say that Lorde will explore these emotional knots in her upcoming album. She wrote in the letter that 2023 was “the year that transitioned me from my childhood working decade to the one that comes next.”
Rumors of Lorde’s fourth studio album have been circulating since August, when producer Jim-E Stack posted a picture of the artist in the studio. The producer has worked with artists including Caroline Polachek, Bon Iver, Dominic Fike and more. There were also rumors that Dev Hynes (Blood Orange) will be collaborating on the record.
Lorde has been coming out of album-writing hibernation since last summer, when she worked it out on the remix of Charli XCX’s “Girl, so confusing.” At Charli’s April 12 set at Coachella, Lorde joined her on the festival stage for the remix.
On April 15, she reflected on her experience at Coachella in a voice note sent to fans on WhatsApp. Intimate and contemplative, she talked about past Coachellas–where she was then versus now, and the inner work that has led to this moment.
“Everything is about to change and these are really the last moments where it’s just us, which is crazy, but so right. I’m so ready,” Lorde said in the voice note. Whatever the artist has planned, it seems to be bigger than ever before.
She closed off the note with gratitude for her fans. “I’m so thankful for your patience. I’ve felt your love. I’ve felt you right there.”
A specific release date for the track has not been announced, nor has an album title. Though it will soon be winter in her native country of New Zealand, fans are already declaring the upcoming “Lorde summer.”
Riley Greenberg can be reached at [email protected]
