Lorde is back with a brand new song
In one of the most anticipated returns in pop music, Lorde unveiled a song Thursday in which the onetime teenage star takes a new dance sound and adult look.
The now 20-year-old New Zealander announced a second album called "Melodrama," her follow-up to 2013's "Pure Heroine" which won her phenomenal success while still a teenager.
Lorde released the album's first single, "Green Light," which is strikingly more lively than her minimalist breakthrough hit, the Grammy-winning "Royals."
"Green Light" starts off with a sullen piano as Lorde, explaining a breakup, sings: "I do my makeup in somebody else's car / We order different drinks at the same bars."
The track quickly heads in a dance direction, with the piano backed up by a driving bass line, a backup chorus and a subtle electronica beat.
"Oh, I wish I could get my things and just let go / I'm waiting for it, that green light, I want it," she sings.
In an accompanying video, Lorde shows up at a nightclub, singing to herself in the mirror of a bathroom where a pianist performs in the corner, and hailing a car as she eventually hops on its roof to dance.
Lorde wrote the song and upcoming album with Jack Antonoff, the guitarist of fun. and the frontman of Bleachers.
Lorde said she spent the past 18 months with Antonoff working on "Melodrama," which will come out in the coming months. She is scheduled to play a series of upcoming festivals including Coachella.