After four years, we’re finally getting a new full-length album from Lorde, and it’s already shaping up to be bolder than ever.
The New Zealander has called the album, entitled “Virgin,” the “sound of [her] rebirth,” giving us a glimpse into the evolution she has undergone, not just artistically but also personally. Her earlier releases “What Was That” and “Man of the Year” clue us into the vulnerability, the rawness, and ultimately the inner power the singer has discovered and now fully, freely, wields.
The music video for the former has also been Lorde’s biggest creative risk recently, she shares during a press conference with Southeast Asian media. While she prefers keeping her work controlled, opting not to leave things to chance, Lorde, for this project, takes a step toward the bold, “[capturing] the intimate, spontaneous spirit” by holding a surprise performance at Washington Square Park, which drew a massive crowd. Parts of the performance were then included in the music video.
“It was hard to pull off… Too many people showed up and the police told us we couldn’t do it,” Lorde says. But the sense of liberation was made apparent then, too, in her response. “I remember feeling very calm in the moment and saying to my director, whatever happens, it’s gonna be the right thing.”
“I really came into my power, making this album,” Lorde says. “In the past, I really struggled with that, with feeling powerful, with feeling fully in my body. It was really my intention with this [album] to make something that felt like it could carry the full weight of my inner world and my ambition and my history.”
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“Virgin,” she says, is also an attempt to heal, nurture, and give more attention to the different parts of her—with her songs as a record of various moments from different stages of her life. The upcoming album documents this journey through sound: “five-year-old me, teen me, 2023 me struggling with body image and eating issues, and thinking about 2024 to 2025 me, there’s a lot of promise and zest for life.”
What Lorde finds herself reiterating, in many interviews, including our press conference for the album, is that “Virgin” bears the strong message of liberation. As much as “Virgin” is Lorde’s rebirth, it is also her invitation for everyone to be one in all the feels. “I want my fans to be inspired to really get in touch with how they feel. I want them to be inspired to be fully alive and liberated in their bodies,” she says.
“I really believe that being free in our bodies any way we can is really to our advantage,” Lorde adds. “I find it really inspiring to see women really free and confident in who they are. I invite people to feel that full liberation however they can.”
