Sarina Maloy
Lorde has made an epic return to the music scene with her new single, ‘Hammer’, marking the third release from her album, Virgin (2025).
The public has been missing Ella Yelich O’Connor – or Lorde, as she’s professionally known – since the 2021 release of Solar Power (2021).
She would pop up here and there, whether that be as a feature on the globally viral Charli xcx track ‘Girl, So Confusing’ or to pay tribute to the Talking Heads in 2024 with a cover of ‘Take Me to the River’. But, one thing is for certain, 2025 is a ‘Lorde summer’.
‘What Was That’ And ‘Man Of The Year’ In Relation To ‘Hammer’
‘Hammer’, released on June 20th 2025, served as the 3rd single from Lorde’s 4th studio album, Virgin (2025), succeeding ‘What Was That’ and ‘Man Of The Year’.
For those who weren’t a fan of Lorde’s last effort, Solar Power (2021) (which read less like her usual finger-on-the-pulse commentary and more like a physical embodiment of “throw[ing] [her] cellular device in the water]), ‘What Was That’ felt like a return to form.
“It’s clear that Lorde is going back to her roots, whether that be a fan-reception-induced decision or one entirely her own”
It included all of the trademarks of a classic Lorde track – a pulsing synth, a dance break a la ‘Green Light’, and punchily-delivered lyrics such as “Since I was seventeen / I gave you everything / Now we wake from a dream / Well, baby, what was that?”
In contrast, ‘Man Of The Year’ was a more stripped, personal effort, the first verse consisting of just Lorde’s voice and a bass guitar.
If ‘What Was That’ calls back to ‘Green Light’ and ‘Supercut’, ‘Man Of The Year’ calls back to a track like ‘Sober II (Melodrama)’.
It’s clear that Lorde is going back to her roots, whether that be a fan-reception-induced decision or one entirely her own.
“I’ve never been more addicted to my phone,” Lorde told Brittany Spanos with Rolling Stone earlier this year.
“I think to be a good artist, you have to have a sense of what’s in the water. And I’m on my phone way more, but also I’ve never read more. I’ve never looked at more art. Maybe it balances out somehow.”
Lorde’s Rebirth On ‘Hammer’
Despite the callbacks to her previous releases, on ‘Hammer’, Lorde is reborn and says as much.
“I burn and I sing and I scheme and I dance / Some days I’m a woman, some days I’m a man / I mighta been born again,” she explains in the pre-chorus.
Throughout Solar Power (2021), Lorde was adamant that she had lived enough to be omniscient.
She revealed ‘Secrets From A Girl (Who’s Seen It All)’, embodying the titular character, giving advice to younger women as if she had lived an entire life at 25.
“She is a young woman in her twenties and is acting as such.”
In ‘Hammer’, Lorde’s perspective changes; she’s “Ready to feel like [she doesn’t] have the answers”. Instead of desperately grappling for control of her life and her narrative, she is relinquishing it (“Take an aura picture / Read it and tell me who I am.”)
Throughout ‘Hammer’, Lorde is free, not just spiritually, but sexually. She is a young woman in her twenties and is acting as such.
The titular noun, ‘Hammer’, and its corresponding lyric “When you’re holding a hammer / everything looks like a nail” is in reference to Abraham Maslow – a historically renowned American psychologist – and his law of the instrument; “I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail”.
For Lorde, her ‘Hammer’ is her sexuality, or her capacity for love, or just the fact that she is ovulating. Either way, she is harnessing it, finding connections everywhere she goes.
Jim-E-Stack’s Production On ‘Hammer’
In an interview with Zane Lowe for Apple Music, Lorde explains that the primary producer of Virgin (2025) — Jim-E-Stack — got together with producer Buddy Ross to “wrangle” the version of ‘Hammer’ that is heard on the album.
“Spring ‘24, Jim-E linked up with Buddy Ross, who sort of did a whole bunch of different stuff for it…[Jim-E] played it to me on FaceTime, and I was like, hey, Hammer’s back. It’s back on the album.”
“I just tried to keep it as raw and pure as possible,” Lorde explains regarding the production of ‘Hammer’.
“Buddy’s sounds are so earthy, and there’s such a purity to them, and they’re unmistakably machine-made.”
Mood Setting
The sonic purity of ‘Hammer’, despite its synth production, is completely fitting for what the song is trying to convey.
As previously mentioned, ‘Hammer’ is a rebirth; spiritually, sexually and sonically. It is Lorde at her most honest, and arguably, her most vulnerable as an artist.
“She is finally at her most connected to herself, and consequently, the listener is at their most connected, too.”
“The palette of the album is actually quite simple,” she explains in the same Apple Music interview.
“We use a lot of the same stuff over and over. And [Jim-E] thought all of the sounds we chose, which we chose so carefully, as my voices, you know — these machines are singing and crying and talking, you know, or laughing, in the same way that we do.”
Despite the technological references intertwined with ‘Hammer’ and the Virgin (2025) project as a whole (the heavy synths, the X-ray image on the album cover), the machinery represents Lorde’s very being.
She is finally at her most connected to herself, and consequently, the listener is at their most connected, too.
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