Lorde Appears to Tease Fourth Album in Cryptic Post with L4 Images

Lorde sure seems to be teasing her long-awaited fourth album. But in an Instagram post on Tuesday night (June 4) the 27-year-old singer raised more questions than she answered thanks to a series of cryptic pics and a caption filled with a jumble of indecipherable rune-like images.

“Use the existing tools wherever possible,” Lorde wrote, followed by what looked like a ZapfDingbats spree, including a copyright symbol, three different L figures, the number four in parentheses and a recycling logo. “If the tools do not exist you are spiritually obligated to create them,” she added along with an even longer string of confounding images, with the repeated run of Ls, another 4 and a variety of stars, the number 27 and what appeared to be a Tarot card, the infinity symbol, a shark, a rabbit and an Egyptian figure.

What does it all mean? Lorde didn’t offer any explanation, and the accompanying photos didn’t really help, as they consisted of a pic of her in an all-black outfit staring over a balcony, then spitting off said balcony, holding a pill in her hand with the word “spit” imprinted on it, as well as a nightstand featuring a pile of books and an ashtray filled with gold jewelry and a close-up shot of her at a swimming pool. The post is currently the only offering on her Insta account, whose tagline reads, “THE THEMES ARE ALWAYS THE SAME— A RETURN TO INNOCENCE— THE MYSTERIES OF THE BLOOD— AN ITCH FOR THE TRANSCENDENTAL.”

At press time there was no firm information on the follow-up to Lorde’s 2021 Solar Power album. In December, she offered an equally confusing update she posted an image of herself in striped pajamas in which she appeared to be listening to something while staring at the camera with the caption, “listening to myself.”

She teased a couple of new songs during a headlining gig at the Boardmasters Festival in the U.K. last summer, with song sleuths speculating that the tracks might be called “Silver Moon” and “Invisible Ink.” Responding to fans getting hyped up about what seemed like L4 season being right around the corner, Lorde wrote at the time, “We’re not CLOSE close you guys… i’m just getting so hype n needed to let u know .. start ur excitement on a low flame and bring it up to a gentle simmer .. we building stamina for this chapter.”

The singer, who is expert at staying out of the spotlight between albums, opened up in September in an emotional letter to fans in which she revealed that she was “living with heartbreak again.” The note described both emotional and physical pain, explaining, “It’s different but the same. I ache all the time, I forget why and then remember. I’m not trying to hide from the pain, I understand now that pain isn’t something to hide from, that there’s actually great beauty in moving with it. But sometimes I’m sick of being with myself.”

Check out Lorde’s post below.