Patience is a virtue, a fact that fans of New Zealand-born pop phenomenon Lorde have learned time and time again throughout her career. But luckily, patience is no longer required when it comes to the singer’s newest full-length project.
On Friday (June 27), Lorde unveiled her much-anticipated fourth studio album, Virgin. Released via Universal Music, the new album features 11 new songs, including its three previously released singles “What Was That,” “Man of the Year” and “Hammer.”
In a statement released alongside the album’s announcement back in April, Lorde compared Virgin to the color “clear” — and, more specifically, all the things that are clear. “LIKE BATHWATER, WINDOWS, ICE, SPIT. FULL TRANSPARENCY. THE LANGUAGE IS PLAIN AND UNSENTIMENTAL,” she explained of the record. “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.”
While the singer touted the importance of having some of the same sounds throughout the project, one thing that remains very different about Virgin is the producers the singer teamed up with; the LP boasts a series of new collaborators for the singer, including Jim-E Stack, Dan Nigro and Dev Hynes, while her Melodrama and Solar Power producer Jack Antonoff doesn’t make an appearance. While Lorde called Antonoff a “positive, supportive collaborator,” she added that “I just have to trust when my intuition says to keep moving.”
In the lead-up to the new project, Lorde also spoke extensively about how Virgin was inspired by her recent examination of gender. The singer said that a conversation with fellow pop star Chappell Roan prompted her to think more critically about her own gender identity. “I was like, ‘I’m a woman except for the days when I’m a man,’” she said. “I know that’s not a very satisfying answer, but there’s a part of me that is really resistant to boxing it up.”
Stream Lorde’s new album Virgin below:
