Lorde isn’t the only musician who takes this approach with her release strategy. It took Adele six years to release her fourth album, 30, while Beyoncé took her sweet time after Lemonade before she began releasing her ongoing three-act opus. All of these artists achieved commercial and critical success following their much-needed departures from the more traditional two-year album cycle for pop artists. So why don’t more artists consider this formula?
Sure, if you’re Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, or Sabrina Carpenter, you might be leaving money on the table by disappearing for years at a time, but you’re also minimizing the risk of overexposure, burnout, and accusations of “reheating your nachos.” Let’s take a closer look at Lorde’s release strategy, how it has helped her in both the promotion and reception of Virgin, and what other artists can glean from this approach.
How Lorde’s Release Strategy Benefits Her Process
“I just have to go and live my life so that I have stuff to write about,” Lorde mentions in her 2021 “73 Questions” interview with Vogue. Lorde’s approach to making music sounds simple enough. Her bouts of hibernation between album cycles feels necessary both artistically and emotionally, as her music and persona seem to always suggest an uncomfortable relationship with fame, even back in the Pure Hero*ne era.
However, taking breaks as a newfound pop star is not exactly as easy as it sounds. There are offers, endorsement deals, and countless demands from fans online that can easily fill up someone’s annual calendar. Still, Lorde has been consistent about her need to get away from it all. She still communicates with her fans via email from time to time between eras, and she’ll occasionally release a standalone song. Who can forget her instantly iconic feature on Charli XCX’s BRAT remix album last summer? But when Lorde is ready to go back into the spotlight, there is no repetition and no nacho reheating. She knows what she has to say, and it’s new every time.
The album rollout for Virgin has certainly been headline-grabbing. There was the impromptu concert-turned-video in Washington Square Park, the divisive comments she made about watching Pamela Anderson’s infamous tape, and her refusal to allow what she calls “gender broadening” to be simplified and labeled by mainstream media. Regardless of how you feel about the promotion of this record, Lorde is firmly standing on her own two feet, prepared to take on complex and vulnerable subject matter with occasionally strange but always unapologetic musings. This is reflected in the album itself as well, which Pitchfork describes as, “gritty, tender, and [an] often transcendent ode to freedom and transformation.”
Lorde’s four-year sabbaticals are a crucial part of her musical eras. She may have only released four solo albums over the course of 12 years—and each album may be on the shorter side—but they are all cohesive and distinct from each other. They are the products of time spent contemplating rather than succumbing to industry pressures. Few artists today have catalogs like this, but if they took this approach, their work might be better received and remembered.
Why More Pop Stars Should Take Breaks
Pop stars can afford to retreat from the spotlight to make better work, so why don’t they? The answer is simple: there is a high demand for these artists to be producing more and more work. Releasing music more frequently benefits the artists financially, while satisfying the label, the people around the artists, and, of course, their hungry fanbase. Still, just because it’s enticing to remain in the spotlight does not mean it’s actually good for you.
Taylor Swift reached a newfound level of popularity during the Eras tour, but her ubiquity—aided by her ongoing romance with Travis Kelce—quickly turned into overexposure. By the time her overlong and highly personal album The Tortured Poets Department was released in the midst of all this, some critics were surprisingly harsh to the Grammy-winning superstar. Swift’s 11th studio album is a great example of a work of art that could have benefited from Lorde’s process. There is a great 12-track album among the 31 tracks that were released, and while Swift enjoyed plenty of commercial success with that album, it already does not have the same artistic legacy as her more cohesive and sparse works. Of course, there was demand for a 31-track record to be released, even so soon after the two albums she re-recorded the previous year. Still, demand should not necessarily dictate artistic choices, just as quantity does not equal quality.
We all need a break from even our favorite musicians from time to time, and they probably need a break from us too—both for their own well-being and for their art. Lorde may not have mastered the healthiest of relationships with celebrity, as some of the more disturbing lyrics on Virgin indicate. However, she has maintained a level of integrity with her artistic output in a way that works best for her and continues to cement her legacy. With this timeline, we can likely expect Lorde’s fifth album in 2029. While that may seem like a long time from now, fans can be assured that whatever comes next will be a proud and confident addition to the artist’s discography.
via @chartdata