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Lorde is sharing dozens of unreleased songs in honor of a major anniversary.
On Friday (June 26), Lorde marked one year since the release of her fourth studio album Virgin by sharing 49 "skeleton" demos and photos from the recording process as well as an lengthy, reflective "XRAYS" note on her website, per Pitchfork.
"To be honest, I haven't really known how to talk about Virgin since it came out," she wrote. "I'd thought I was accustomed and even a bit desensitized to marketing and commodifying my feelings at this point in my life, but sharing Virgin felt raw and exposing in a new way."
The New Zealand musician, 29, detailed the "absurd" and "tough" process of making the record and working through the periods where the work is "really bad," all while navigating personal struggles, from battling an eating disorder and being diagnosed with premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) to going through a breakup.
"Sometimes the discomfort and mundanity are hard to see past, but every single day making Virgin was a total gift," she said. "I had the sense that I was setting myself free, building a hold site. I laid each layer with utmost care."
The "What Was That" singer explained she tried to love the album "all the way through," not only when it was a final product that could be sold, and was "struck over and over during the process by moments of deep beauty when we were just stumbling onto something or going completely in the wrong direction."
"Last year we played around with making an album worth of these skeleton versions, cool composites of a few different versions," she said. "But on Sunday night, I realised true X-rays of Virgin would be realer, funnier, more revealing of crookedness and slant, less about where we ended up than celebratory of the way of traveling, the repetitions, the acne, the journey. Like Eric said, truly you is beautiful. It's how I'm trying to live."