Lorde has announced a new album. Her fourth studio album is titled Virgin, and it arrives on June 27 via Republic. See the new album’s cover below.
The announcement of Virgin follows last week’s release of the comeback single “What Was That.” Lorde made the song with Jim-E Stack, Daniel Nigro, and others. It is one of 11 tracks that will feature on Virgin.
Lorde produced Virgin with Jim-E Stack. The album has additional contributions from Nigro, Fabiana Palladino, Inc. No World’s Andrew Aged, Buddy Ross, and Blood Orange’s Devonté Hynes. In addition, Spike Stent and Tom Elmhirst mixed Virgin, while Chris Gehringer mastered it.
In an email to fans, Lorde wrote:
THE COLOUR OF THE ALBUM IS CLEAR. LIKE BATHWATER, WINDOWS, ICE, SPIT. FULL TRANSPARENCY. THE LANGUAGE IS PLAIN AND UNSENTIMENTAL. THE SOUNDS ARE THE SAME WHEREVER POSSIBLE. I WAS TRYING TO SEE MYSELF, ALL THE WAY THROUGH. I WAS TRYING TO MAKE A DOCUMENT THAT REFLECTED MY FEMININITY: RAW, PRIMAL, INNOCENT, ELEGANT, OPENHEARTED, SPIRITUAL, MASC.
I’M PROUD AND SCARED OF THIS ALBUM. THERE’S NOWHERE TO HIDE. I BELIEVE THAT PUTTING THE DEEPEST PARTS OF OURSELVES TO MUSIC IS WHAT SETS US FREE.
Although Lorde’s last album, Solar Power, came out back in 2021, she continued to trickle out visuals for the record over the ensuing years, including videos for “Oceanic Feeling” and “The Path.” She went on to follow that album with an EP of re-recorded Solar Power songs sung in Māori.
Outside of that album, Lorde stayed busy in other ways. She joined Euphoria’s Hunter Schafer for a conversation on The A24 Podcast, launched a Sonos Radio station called Solarsystym, and covered Rosalía’s song “Hentai.”
More recently, she covered “Take Me to the River,” joined Charli XCX for “Girl, So Confusing Featuring Lorde,” and collaborated with Marlon Williams on “Kāhore He Manu E.”
Revisit the column “7 Great Lorde Live Performances.”
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