Lorde’s new album Virgin is on the way, and she has teased that it’s a deeply personal experience. She did so again yesterday (May 19) when she shared the cover art (here it is) for her upcoming single “Man Of The Year,” which features Lorde shirtless, but with duct tape covering her breasts.
The post reads, “Man Of The Year. An offering from really deep inside me. The song I’m proudest of on Virgin. Out next week.”
Lorde recently told Rolling Stone that when writing the song, she tried to visualize a version of herself “that was fully representative of how [her] gender felt in that moment.” She envisioned herself in men’s jeans and with duct tape on her chest. Lorde said, “I went to the cupboard, and I got the tape out, and I did it to myself. I have this picture staring at myself. I was blonde [at the time]. It scared me what I saw. I didn’t understand it. But I felt something bursting out of me. It was crazy. It was something jagged. There was this violence to it.”
In that same interview, she also said, “[Chappell Roan] asked me this. She was like, ‘So, are you nonbinary now?’ And I was like, ‘I’m a woman except for the days when I’m a man.’ I know that’s not a very satisfying answer, but there’s a part of me that is really resistant to boxing it up.”
Virgin is out 6/27 via Republic Records. Find more information here.