Lorde has penned a lengthy note to subscribers of her newsletter about the status of her next album and the passing of her beloved dog Pearl. The singer-songwriter opens with an explanation of her relative radio silence, writing, “When we first met I would write little notes for you online, and they would form a big map that you would use to chart the constellations in my work. I realized a couple of years ago that I needed to rethink my relationship with posting random shit online all the time, so here we are, a little less in contact than we once were.”
Lorde goes on to explain that Pearl, who she adopted in 2018, passed away last month after battling illnesses. “Pearl had two cardiac arrests about an hour apart, and after the second one, he died,” she wrote. “I was holding him when he went, and I know he knew that I was there. But this loss has been indescribably painful, and a light that was turned on for me has gone out.”
According to the singer-songwriter, Pearl’s death has changed the timetable on her follow-up to 2017’s Melodrama. “He was instrumental to the discovery that was taking place. I felt he led me towards the ideas. And it’s going to take some time and re-calibration, now that there’s no shepherd ahead of me, to see what the work is going to be.” She closes:
So I’m asking for your patience, as 2020 comes around and you start to
wonder where the next record is. I have lost my boy, and I need some
time to see the good again, to finish making this for you. It won’t be
the same work— as anyone who has felt loss can understand, there’s a
door that opens that you step through, and everything is different on
the other side. But when this great loss crystallizes inside me, and
my chest rebuilds around it, hopefully I’ll be able to finish up, and
share it with you, and we’ll all grow together, as we always do.