Why Did Lorde Put An IUD On Her New Album Cover?

Lorde's Virgin album — Photo: Reynaud Julien/APS-Medias/ABACA via Shutterstock

Lorde’s last album, Solar Power, received mixed reviews from critics and fans alike. The 28-year-old singer called the response “confounding” and “painful,” but said she “learned a lot” from the experience. Solar Power was light and breezy, with a folky vibe that was significantly less angsty than her debut, Pure Heroine. On May 1, the “Supercut” singer shared a look at her first new album in four years, and it seems to embrace a return to angst and subversion with renewed intensity. The new album, Virgin, features some fascinating images on the cover.

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Lorde’s album is “written in blood”

Lorde (whose real name is Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O’Connor, btw) totally wiped her website and X account rl to focus on the new album. The stark black-and-white page reads simply:

AN ALBUM BY ME

PRODUCED BY ME AND JIM-E STACK WITH FABIANA PALLADINO ANDREW AGED BUDDY ROSS DAN NIGRO & DEVONTÉ HYNES. MIXED BY SPIKE STENT AND TOM ELMHIRST. MASTERED BY CHRIS GEHRINGER.

100% WRITTEN IN BLOOD. COMING JUNE 27

The concept of the album being “written in blood” feels particularly powerful when paired with the Virgin album cover, which appears to be a pelvic X-ray.

Lorde’s ‘Virgin’ album cover: the breakdown

Let’s discuss this album cover, shall we? It’s a fascinating mix of clinical and rebellious. It’s the bones of (presumably) a woman’s pelvis, but a few metal items in the picture would probably make any doctor throw it out and demand a new one.

The metal teeth of a zipper and a belt buckle imply that the woman is still fully dressed while being X-rayed. That’s bold—instead of the vulnerability of a typical X-ray, when you’re dressed in a thin hospital gown and a lead vest, the subject of the Virgin album cover seems to still have her armor on. (It’s possible, even likely, that the image is meant to represent Lorde herself, but who knows!)

Is that an IUD on Lorde’s album cover?

The other notable object on the album cover appears to be an IUD. The T-shaped birth control floats slightly off-center in the X-ray, innocently hanging out and protecting the woman from unwanted pregnancy.

Women’s reproductive rights are under attack in a way they haven’t been in decades, so the pairing of this image with the title Virgin is clearly no accident. It’s a subversive dichotomy that promises an album full of contradictions.

According to Lorde’s recent interview with Document Journal, we can interpret the stereotypically feminine word and imagery of the Virgin cover as a contrast with much of the album itself. Lorde called the music “the first music of my rebirth” after going through a breakup, experiencing the pandemic, and “sacrificing my body to my career since I was 16 or 17.” She mentioned feeling her “gender broadening a little bit” through all this.

The pairing of the phrase “written in blood” with the IUD and pelvis imagery can’t help but call to mind menstruation. Badass.

She’s exploring her masculine era

One expression that apparently inspired the album came from a challenge of traditional masculinity.

“We were working in the East Village,” Lorde told Document Journal, “and we walked past this flyer. I think it was for joining a band or something, and it said, ‘Do you have the stones?’” “I didn’t understand what it was saying at first,” she explained to the outlet.

“I know now it’s like, ‘Do you think you have the balls?’ But it gave me this feeling that there was a mysticism to it. ‘The stones’ felt like, do you have the sort of touchstones or the talismans to go there? Seeing that as I was also coming into my masculinity a bit more as well, that became the thing we [Lorde and her friend and fellow artist Martine Syms] would say to each other while making music.”

“What Was That?” might be Lorde’s best breakup song since “Green Light”

The first single off Virgin is “What Was That?” a pop-dance bop about a relationship ending. In the music video, Lorde walks and bikes through New York City, singing directly and defiantly to the camera while still stuck on the memory of her ex. Fans were psyched about the stripped down look, with one YouTube comment saying:

“ive never been THIS obsessed with a music video. the 0 budget, shot on iPhone, casual clothes, casual set up, casual scenes. No foundation and little done to her hair. I am OBSESSED and given the vibe she performed at Coachella, It wouldn’t be surprising if this whole album was approached to with much semplicity [sic], no need for crazy outfits or videos, just music and her, and her one man show”

Lots of fans are comparing it to her anthem “Green Light,” with one writing, “It’s like the after of greenlight. You can picture yourself boxing your stuff ready to move on. I can’t wait for her album ★.”