Lorde turns 20 today (November 7), and the no-longer-teen marked the occasion by sharing a massive Facebook post in which she offers fans an update on her life and her upcoming album.
After releasing her debut album Pure Heroine in 2013 at the age of 16, Lorde made the decision to (mostly) step out of the spotlight for the last year. She's also apparently gained some major adult perspective, already looking back at her teenage years as a thing of the past.
"All my life I've been obsessed with adolescence, drunk on it. Even when I was little, I knew that teenagers sparkled. I knew they knew something children didn't know, and adults ended up forgetting," she wrote. "Since 13 I've spent my life building this giant teenage museum, mausoleum maybe, dutifully wolfishly writing every moment down, and repeating it all back like folklore. And now there isn't any more of it."
Expressing herself in the most millennial way, she added "*insert that emoji that looks like it's eating its own face with worry, and also the one with sunglasses, and maybe also the poo.*"
She also talked about removing herself from the public eye, writing:
Sometime in the last year or so, part of me crossed over. For one thing, I made a very deliberate choice to withdraw for a little while from a public life. I haven't had my hair or makeup done in a year, the free handbags dried up LONG ago, and the paparazzi at the airport are almost always for someone else. And let me tell you, as much as I love being full noise album cycle girl, it's been a motherfucking joy. (every once in a while I am recognised on the street - one of you breathlessly clutches my hand, shaking and speaking quickly, and I feel this SHOCK of love.)
I turned inwards to my friends, my family, towards this moment, so I could learn more about who I was, and so I could let this new project show itself to me.
She expanded on the inspiration behind the forthcoming record, adding:
And oh my god, it was a colossal year! One for the ages. I maxed out every single emotion I have in the best possible way, the colours still aching behind my eyes like this weird blissful hangover.
My heart broke. I moved out of home and into the city and I made new friends and started to realize that no-one is just good or bad, that everyone is both. I started to discover in a profound, scary, blood-aching way who I was when I was alone, what I did when I did things only for myself. I was reckless and graceless and terrifying and tender. I threw sprawling parties and sat in restaurants until the early hours, learning what it's like to be an adult, even talking like one sometimes, until I caught myself. All I wanted to do was dance. I whispered into ears and let my eyes blaze on high and for the first time I felt this intimate, empire-sized inner power.
And then I wrote a record about it, all of it, so much more than what I've written down here, and I'm in New York getting it done. And tomorrow, I'm not a kid any more, and more and more I'm realizing that the weirdness of those Mylar balloons is going to be okay.
Writing Pure Heroine was my way of enshrining our teenage glory, putting it up in lights forever so that part of me never dies, and this record — well, this one is about what comes next.
She closed by revealing that she's looking forward to sharing the album's title, cover, lyrics ("the best I've ever written in my life"), as well as the live show and merch, but that an official announcement is likely still more than a month away.
In the meantime, relive Lorde's Pure Heroine hit "Royals" in the player below. Pre-order Lorde's new album via Umusic here.
After releasing her debut album Pure Heroine in 2013 at the age of 16, Lorde made the decision to (mostly) step out of the spotlight for the last year. She's also apparently gained some major adult perspective, already looking back at her teenage years as a thing of the past.
"All my life I've been obsessed with adolescence, drunk on it. Even when I was little, I knew that teenagers sparkled. I knew they knew something children didn't know, and adults ended up forgetting," she wrote. "Since 13 I've spent my life building this giant teenage museum, mausoleum maybe, dutifully wolfishly writing every moment down, and repeating it all back like folklore. And now there isn't any more of it."
Expressing herself in the most millennial way, she added "*insert that emoji that looks like it's eating its own face with worry, and also the one with sunglasses, and maybe also the poo.*"
She also talked about removing herself from the public eye, writing:
Sometime in the last year or so, part of me crossed over. For one thing, I made a very deliberate choice to withdraw for a little while from a public life. I haven't had my hair or makeup done in a year, the free handbags dried up LONG ago, and the paparazzi at the airport are almost always for someone else. And let me tell you, as much as I love being full noise album cycle girl, it's been a motherfucking joy. (every once in a while I am recognised on the street - one of you breathlessly clutches my hand, shaking and speaking quickly, and I feel this SHOCK of love.)
I turned inwards to my friends, my family, towards this moment, so I could learn more about who I was, and so I could let this new project show itself to me.
She expanded on the inspiration behind the forthcoming record, adding:
And oh my god, it was a colossal year! One for the ages. I maxed out every single emotion I have in the best possible way, the colours still aching behind my eyes like this weird blissful hangover.
My heart broke. I moved out of home and into the city and I made new friends and started to realize that no-one is just good or bad, that everyone is both. I started to discover in a profound, scary, blood-aching way who I was when I was alone, what I did when I did things only for myself. I was reckless and graceless and terrifying and tender. I threw sprawling parties and sat in restaurants until the early hours, learning what it's like to be an adult, even talking like one sometimes, until I caught myself. All I wanted to do was dance. I whispered into ears and let my eyes blaze on high and for the first time I felt this intimate, empire-sized inner power.
And then I wrote a record about it, all of it, so much more than what I've written down here, and I'm in New York getting it done. And tomorrow, I'm not a kid any more, and more and more I'm realizing that the weirdness of those Mylar balloons is going to be okay.
Writing Pure Heroine was my way of enshrining our teenage glory, putting it up in lights forever so that part of me never dies, and this record — well, this one is about what comes next.
She closed by revealing that she's looking forward to sharing the album's title, cover, lyrics ("the best I've ever written in my life"), as well as the live show and merch, but that an official announcement is likely still more than a month away.
In the meantime, relive Lorde's Pure Heroine hit "Royals" in the player below. Pre-order Lorde's new album via Umusic here.