Lorde teases some “really good” ‘Virgin’ b-sides

Lorde has teased that some ‘Virgin‘ b-sides may be on the way.

• READ MORE: Lorde live at Glastonbury 2025: a celebratory start to her new era

The New Zealand singer released her fourth album last Friday (June 27) and celebrated the occasion by playing it in full during a surprise set at Glastonbury 2025.

Now, after giving fans the weekend to digest the LP, Lorde has shared some behind-the-scenes facts about ‘Virgin’.

Taking to Instagram yesterday (June 30), she revealed that one of her favourite songs didn’t make the final track list, writing that she cut it “last minute because I thought it diluted the vision.”

She added that it was one of her “absolute favs” that she wrote with songwriter Fabiana Palladino, who also worked on ‘Current Affairs’ and ‘If She Could See Me Now’. As it turns out, it’s not the only unreleased song, with the singer adding: “Couple really good B sides knocking around actually.”

In the post, she also shared that ‘David’ was the first song she began writing for the album, but the second-to-last one she finished. The last song she started writing was ‘Clearblue’ – which she previously revealed was about “unprotected sex and taking a pregnancy test” – and the final song she finished was ‘Broken Glass’.

She went on to say that ‘Favourite Daughter’ was the “hardest song… to write, to produce, to sing. Kicked my ass”, and that a lot of the album was written during the early hours of the morning amid bouts of insomnia.

She also mentioned her long-held ambition to sample Dexta Daps’ ‘Morning Love’, which she did on ‘Current Affairs’.

Elsewhere, she revealed that her favourite sound on the album was a tie between “the ripping tremolo + icy vocal adlib at the end of ‘David’ and the start of ‘Hammer.’” She then explained the link between the album’s opening and closing tracks: “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.”

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In a four-star review of ‘Virgin’, NME wrote: “Ultimately, ‘Virgin’ is a vibrant combination of Lorde’s best qualities, and then some. With her newfound candour, the record combines the emotional whirlwind of ‘Melodrama’, the chilling minimalism of ‘Pure Heroine’ and the breezy freedom of ‘Solar Power’. This might be called ‘Virgin’, but Lorde proves she’s not afraid to strip herself bare.

Elsewhere, Lorde’s surprise set at Glasto came after she hinted that she was “pretty keen” to make an appearance. It followed a series intimate fan listening events in the lead-up to ‘Virgin’s release, held in a London parking garage and a small New York music venue.

In a five-star review of her Glastonbury set, NME concluded: “It feels fitting that the backdrop and stage is covered in white plastic – a blank canvas for each song to project new facets of Lorde’s character onto. A blurry image of the star can be seen among the colours that drench it during each song, sometimes becoming clearer, others hazy and murky – the uncertainty and unpredictability of her journey reflected in its changing sharpness.”

Meanwhile, Lorde is set to embark on her UK, European and North American ‘Ultrasound’ tour later this year. She has promised fans that the forthcoming gigs “could be our masterpiece”. You can find any remaining tickets here (UK/Ireland).

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