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Listen to Lorde’s New Song “Liability”

Lorde: “I think everyone knows what that’s like, to just feel like a fucking liability.”

Photo by Isaac Brekken/Getty Images for iHeartMedia

Lorde has shared a new song from her upcoming album Melodrama, which is out June 16 (via LAVA/Republic). It’s called “Liability,” and it’s co-produced with Jack Antonoff. Stream it below. In a new interview with Zane Lowe, Lorde said, “I love the song so much and it feels so starkly truthful to me. And I think everyone knows what that’s like, to just feel like a fucking liability.” She also explained:

I’m really proud of this bit of songwriting. I feel like I got somewhere they hadn’t been before, which is always a nice feeling as a songwriter. It’s interesting because I had this realization that because of my lifestyle and what I do for work there’s going to be a point with every single person around me where I’m gonna be attacks on them in some way. If it is having to give up a little portion of their privacy or their life becoming more difficult or whatever. It was just this moment of sadness and I remember it so vividly.

I was in this cab alone listening to “Higher” by Rihanna because ANTI had just come out. And I had a little cry and I was just like, “It’s always going to be this way, at some point with everyone it’s going to be this way.” But the song kind of ended up turning into a bit of a protective talismans for me. I was like, you know what, I’m always gonna have myself so I have to really nurture this relationship and feel good about hanging out with myself and loving myself. And the tone of the melody, the way it kind of falls around, it’s almost like it’s kind of drunk or it sort of leans around, it’s got this hip-hop cadence to it.

It follows Melodrama’s “Green Light,” which she co-wrote with Antonoff and Joel Little and co-produced with Antonoff and Frank Dukes. The video was directed by Grant Singer. In a previous interview with Zane Lowe, she revealed the song is about her “first major heartbreak.” Lorde’s last album was her 2013 debut Pure Heroine.

Read Pitchfork’s interview with Grant Singer about “Green Light.”