Lorde – “What Was That”

It's been four years since the last Lorde summer, although the artist born Ella Yelich-O'Connor hasn't been totally quiet since her Jack Antonoff-produced "weed album" Solar Power. She sang in te reo Māori on both a Solar Power companion EP and a Marlon Williams album; she covered Talking Heads, MUNA, Bananarama, the Strokes, Rosalía, and Britney Spears; and she broke the internet by joining Charli XCX on a remix of "Girl, so confusing." Anticipation for LP4 has been growing since the New Zealand pop star previewed new music at a UK festival two years ago and now we finally have our first taste.

The new Lorde single comes after a derailed preview pop-up in NYC last night. Yesterday, fans who subscribed to Lorde text updates received a message to "meet [her] in the park." As they packed out Washington Square Park (a location Lorde teased on social media) the NYPD shut the thing down just minutes before it was scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. "Omg @thepark the cops are shutting us down," Lorde wrote on Instagram Stories. "I am truly Amazed by how many of you showed up !! But they’re telling me you gotta disperse … I’m so sorry.” Eventually her collaboator Dev Hynes aka Blood Orange showed up with a speaker to debut the single "What Was That," and later Lorde herself returned to dance on a table as it played again. Now, the song is officially streaming.

Lorde co-wrote "What Was That" with Jim-E Stack, the pair produced it with Chappell Roan/Olivia Rodrigo collaborator Dan Nigro, and Stack and Nigro played all the instruments save for some guitar contributed by Mk.gee bandmate Andrew Aged. It's an upbeat, lovelorn banger that sounds more Melodrama than Solar Power and is directed towards an ex-lover who apparently left Lorde blindsided: "MDMA in the back garden, blow our pupils up/ We kissed for hours straight, well baby, what was that?" The lyrics also mention getting caught in a sandstorm in an "Indio haze," undoubtedly a Coachella reference. Likely place for Lorde to be.

“I really think that this song is the music of my rebirth,” Lorde said in a post-shower voice memo to text subscribers on Wednesday evening. “It’s one of my favorite songs I’ve ever written, ever produced. The video’s so sick. It’s just different this time. You’ll see.”

Watch the video, which incorporates footage from last night's chaotic event, and see some additional text from Lorde about the track below.

LATE 2023. BACK IN NEW YORK. DEEP BREAKUP. STOPPING BIRTH CONTROL. EVERY MEAL A BATTLE. FLASHBACKS AND WAVES. FEELING GRIEF’S VORTEX AND LETTING IT TAKE ME. OPENING MY MOUTH AND RECORDING WHAT FELL OUT. JIMMY SHOUTING IN THE BACKGROUND. A THOUSAND HOURS OF AUDIO EMBROIDERY. DAN TELLING US WHERE THE MOOG BASS SHOULD GO. ANDREW GIVING IT TEETH. THE NIGHT WE FINALLY GOT THE DRUMS RIGHT. THE SOUND OF MY REBIRTH