Lorde Announces Summer Release for ‘Solar Power’ Album, Tour Dates for Next Spring

The dog days of summer will come with a silver lining for Lorde fans — the release of her third album and first in four years, “Solar Power,” coming August 20.

The sun won’t be quite so high in the sky, meanwhile, when Lorde finally hits the road. She’ll be touring behind the album in the spring, with North American dates starting at Nashville’s Opry House on April 3, 2022 and wrapping up at the Santa Barbara Bowl May 7. Her L.A show will be May 5 at the Shrine. Tickets go on sale to the general public at 10 a.m. local time on Friday for the tour, which has New Zealand and Australian dates preceding the American gigs, and a trip through Europe following her U.S. dates.

A 12-track song list was released for “Solar Power,” the title track of which came out to preview the album 11 days ago, timed to a solar eclipse. Some of the song titles, like the closing “Oceanic Feeling,” confirm that the singer is in a very summery and not-so-black-clad mode on her first album since 2017’s “Melodrama,” with producer Jack Antonoff back on board for the follow-up.

“The album is a celebration of the natural world, an attempt at immortalizing the deep, transcendent feelings I have when I’m outdoors,” Lorde said in a statement accompanying the announcement. “In times of heartache, grief, deep love, or confusion, I look to the natural world for answers. I’ve learned to breathe out, and tune in. This is what came through. … The first song (‘Solar Power’) is the first of the rays. It’s about that infectious, flirtatious summer energy that takes hold of us all, come June.”

If you had intentions of buying it on CD, you’re out of luck. The announcement says that Lorde, “to honor the natural world,” will release it in “a first-of-its kind, discless format. An eco-conscious Music Box will be available for purchase as an alternative to a CD” for retail, with extra printed content and a high-quality download that will include two exclusive bonus tracks. Said Lorde, “I decided early on in the process of making this album that I also wanted to create an environmentally kind, forward-thinking alternative to the CD. I wanted this Music Box product to be similar in size, shape and price to a CD, to live alongside it in a retail environment, but be something which stands apart and that’s committed to the evolving nature of a modern album.”

However, Lorde is not going altogether disc-less in the “Solar Power” rollout. Although vinyl was not mentioned as part of the announcement, her webstore shows three different LP versions of the album on sale (the most deluxe of which sold out within minutes of the album announcement).

The album track list:

1. The Path
2. Solar Power
3. California
4. Stoned in the Nail Salon
5. Fallen Fruit
6. Secrets From a Girl (Who’s Seen It All)
7. The Man with An Axe
8. Dominoes
9. Big Star
10. Leader of a New Regime
11. Mood Ring
12. Oceanic Feeling

Lorde’s tour dates: