We are rapidly approaching the fourth anniversary of Lorde’s Melodrama, her sophomore LP which transformed her into an upper-echelon pop figure, and since its respective tour has finished we haven’t heard a peep of new music. But stans seem to think that, finally, its long awaited follow-up — yes, the third Lorde album — is wrapped and ready to go.
The source? Mere hearsay, but after so long spent without even a crumb of information on what the album might sound like or when it’s coming, the stans are absolutely latching on to this news, which was widely disseminated in a tweet that went viral earlier this week.
Head over to the Lorde subreddit and you’ll find mixed reactions to this news. “We’re gonna get these rumors every three months until everyone dies or the album comes out,” user contrahall said, with many echoing the sentiment that, until Lorde (real name is Ella Yelich-O’Connor) says it herself, they’re not going to get excited.
But there seems to be a ‘reliable insider’ behind these rumours who snoops the forums of pop message board ATRL.net called RideOrDie. Earlier this week, he posted two messages to the Lorde board. One that simply read “it’s done” and another explaining some rumoured-but-unconfirmed details about the new record.
“12 tracks + 2 bonus tracks, no ‘bops’,” it reads. “New age hippie stoner album. Get your weed or acid ready”, which seems in line with the apparent 70s influences.
We know already that Jack Antonoff has been involved in the record based on photos of the two together, and news shared in Lorde’s surprise newsletters over the past year. What’s more, Frank Ocean’s favourite producer Malay also divulged in an interview that the duo had been working together. “So this time we actually started from zero together, which is really unique and fun,” he told Reverb last year. “But like I said, she’s another one of those, like a Frank Ocean, where she has an insane vision, and she is not going to compromise whatsoever. So that’s why I said it could be some time, especially because of the pandemic, and she’s in New Zealand.”
So are the rumours on stan Twitter to be believed? Well, ‘trusted insiders’ are flakey people at the best of times, so don’t treat this Lorde album news as gospel. But we don’t blame you if you’re holding out for any kind of news. The Lorde stans have been starved! Let us eat up the make believe fairy dust in the meantime!