But wait, there’s more. Lorde, fresh from releasing her third studio album Solar Power, has dropped a surprise companion EP, cut entirely in the Māori language.
Arriving Thursday (Aug. 9) with little fanfare, Te Ao Mārama features five tracks from Solar Power, with assists from veteran New Zealand singers Bic Runga and Marlon Williams.
“Many things revealed themselves slowly to me while I was making this album, but the main realisation by far was that much of my value system around caring for and listening to the natural world comes from traditional Māori principles,” she explains in a message to fans. “There’s a word for it in te reo: kaitiakitanga, meaning ‘guardianship or caregiving for the sky, sea and land’. I’m not Māori, but all New Zealanders grow up with elements of this worldview.”
