Lorde has shared some intriguing behind-the-scenes details about her latest album Virgin, revealing that one of her favourite tracks was cut from the final tracklist at the last minute.
In a social media post on Monday, the New Zealand pop superstar explained that she removed the track because she “thought it diluted the vision” of the album. The unreleased cut was written in collaboration with Fabiana Palladino, who also worked with Lorde on “Current Affairs” and “If She Could See Me Now”.
Fans will be pleased to know that this isn’t the only unreleased material from the Virgin sessions, as Lorde teased that there are a “couple really good B sides knocking around actually,” suggesting more music might be released in the future.
The artist also shared several other insights about the album’s creation process. “David” was the first track she began writing for Virgin, though it was the second-to-last one she completed. Conversely, “Clearblue” was the last track she started writing, while “Broken Glass” was the final track she finished.
Lorde admitted that “Favourite Daughter” proved to be the most challenging track on the album “to write, to produce, to sing,” saying it “kicked my ass.” She also revealed that parts of many tracks on the album were written during the early hours of the morning following bouts of insomnia.
Among other revelations, Lorde mentioned she had long wanted to sample Dexta Daps’ “Morning Love”, which she finally incorporated into “Current Affairs”. When asked about her favourite sound on the album, she couldn’t choose just one, naming “the ripping tremolo + icy vocal adlib at the end of ‘David’ and the start of ‘Hammer'” as tied for first place.
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She also noted an intentional sonic connection between the album’s opening and closing tracks, explaining: “People always thought the linked start and end of [Pure Heroine] was intentional; it wasn’t, but starting and ending Virgin at the fountain was.”
Virgin was released last Friday (June 27th), and Lorde celebrated with a surprise performance at Glastonbury Festival. She is set to embark on a North American tour in support of the album, beginning on September 17th in Austin, Texas and concluding on October 22nd in Seattle, Washington. At the time of writing, no Australia or New Zealand dates have been confirmed.
