Lorde has dropped a major hint her fourth album is not far away with a new and very rare Instagram post.
She captioned two selfies of her with headphones on with three simple words: "Listening to myself."
The tease of new music soon excited fans, many pleading with her to "drop an album".
However, in a reply, Lorde cooled expectations the new album was imminent, saying: "We're not CLOSE close you guys. I'm just getting so hype and needed to let you know."
"Start your excitement on a low flame and bring it up to a gentle simmer. We're building stamina for this chapter."
The post is currently one of only two on Lorde's official Instagram account. In recent years she has opted against posting on social media after deleting all of her own posts, instead communicating with fans via emailed newsletters.
The new Instagram post was quickly reported on by the likes of Rolling Stone and NME, and among the 10,000 comments it attracted was a reply from Breaking Bad actor Aaron Paul's verified account.
Simply posting three black heart emojis, Paul's comment surprised fans, with one writing: "Lorde stan?!?!?!?!" in response.
Of the many fan responses to Lorde, one said: "We wanna listen to you too but you need to drop an album, babe."
"Solar Power is very good. Lorde is not going to stick to formulas and we all should know that by now. She's not another pop act for cringe teens," another wrote.
Others were less positive, suggesting they wanted her follow up to Solar Power to be more to their liking.
"The last one was a disaster," one commenter said.
"Drop a better album or never drop," another wrote.
In February the 'Green Light' singer confirmed she was working on a fourth album, telling Ensemble magazine: "It has taken me quite a while."
In September, she emailed fans a dramatic update, saying she was "living with heartbreak again" and "aches all the time", an update that seemed to confirm she had split from music executive boyfriend Justin Warren.
"It's different but the same. I ache all the time, I forget why and then remember. I'm not trying to hide from the pain, I understand now that pain isn't something to hide from, that there's actually great beauty in moving with it. But sometimes I'm sick of being with myself," she wrote.
The 'Green Light' singer hinted that she was suffering physically, too, saying that her "body was really inflamed".
Lorde's third album, Solar Power, was released over two years ago in August, 2021. It followed Melodrama (2017) and Pure Heroine (2013).
