Lorde Drops 'Solar Power' Music Video and Announces Long-Awaited Third Album: 'I'm Completely Obsessed'

youtube Lorde

Lorde is back!

Fans have been awaiting new music from the New Zealand singer-songwriter, 24, since her last album in 2017, Melodrama - and she's finally here to deliver with her third studio LP.

Titled Solar Power, Lorde announced on Thursday that her long-awaited record is "sexy, playful, feral, and free."

She also accompanied the reveal with a music video to a song of the titular track, "Solar Power."

"The first song, also called SOLAR POWER and written and produced by myself and Jack [Antonoff], is the first of the rays," Lorde wrote in a newsletter to fans. "It's about that infectious, flirtatious summer energy that takes hold of us all, come June (or December, if you're a Southern Hemisphere baby like me but I know that's literally IMPOSSIBLE for you all to wrap your little heads around so don't worry about it!!)."

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In the music video, the singer begins by relaxing on the beach with a group of friends while wearing a yellow crop top and a skirt to match. Lorde appears to be on a commune as she struts through the beach where people are seen in dance sequences, playing board games, picnicking, dancing on the water and holding the singer up on a litter.

She certainly sets the tone for a breezy summer with the lyrics: "Turn it on in a new kind of bright, it's solar (solar, solar, solar) / Come on and let the bliss begin / Blink three times when you feel it kickin' in / That solar power."

youtube Lorde in "Solar Power" Music Video

In her newsletter, Lorde introduced her new album as a "modern girl."

"There's someone I want you to meet," the Grammy winner wrote. "Her feet are bare at all times. She's sexy, playful, feral, and free. She's a modern girl in a deadstock bikini, in touch with her past and her future, vibrating at the highest level when summer comes around. Her skin is glowing, her lovers are many. I'm completely obsessed with her, and soon you will be too."

"The album is a celebration of the natural world, an attempt at immortalizing the deep, transcendent feelings I have when I'm outdoors," she continued. "In times of heartache, grief, deep love, or confusion, I look to the natural world for answers. I've learnt to breathe out, and tune in. This is what came through."

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The artist then explained how much her family and friends influenced the album.

"I made everything with friends here in New Zealand. My best mate Ophelia took the cover photo, lying on the sand as I leapt over her, both of us laughing. The director who made my first ever music video, Joel, helped me create the videos, building an entire cinematic universe that I can't wait for you to see," Lorde said. "I made something that encapsulates where I'm from - my family, my girlfriends, my outdoors, my constant ruminations, and my unending search for the divine."

Lorde also said the announcement was specifically tied to the only solar eclipse this year.

The "Royals" singer didn't, however, mention the date of her upcoming album.

Steve Granitz/Getty Lorde

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Lorde revealed in Nov. 2019 that her third album was delayed after the death of her dog. Then in May 2020, she teased new music in a newsletter to fans, assuring them it's on the way.

"I want nothing more than to feed you treats, pop perfect morsels straight into your little mouths," she explained in the newsletter. "But as I get older I realize there's something to be said for the pleasant feeling of waiting for something of quality to become available to you. You could have something of lesser quality much faster, but as the high-quality thing comes into fruition, a warm feeling grows inside you."

She also explained that she needed a break from touring after taking Melodrama on the road and dealing with debilitating stage fright throughout, adding that she wasn't sure for a long time if she would ever go on the road again. "I still don't know what touring is gonna look like for me, sensitive sweet pea plant that I am," she shared. "But I know now how excited I am to get back out there. I want to be playing festivals again - hearing my intro music, watching the band walk onstage... Who knows when it'll be safe to do those things, but I'm craving them, and I wanted you to know."

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Lorde added, "The work is so f-ing good, my friend. I am truly jazzed for you to hear it."