Lorde's "Hammer" Is Her Horniest Song Yet

Lorde is undergoing some major changes — and feeling a bit horny. Just a week before her new album Virgin hits shelves on June 27, the singer unveiled her album’s opening track “Hammer,” alongside a steamy yet sentimental music video. Taking to Instagram to announce the song, Lorde described “Hammer” as “an ode to city life and horniness tbh.”

True to her promise, “Hammer” is indeed her horniest song yet. But in typical Lorde fashion, she describes her desires in the most poetic way possible, over a droning synth that builds up to a full-on breakdown. “Don't know if it's love or if it's ovulation,” she sings on the first verse. “Anyone with a snake tongue, I show ‘em the chambers of my heart.

However, “Hammer” also addresses the revelations that often come from city life. In May, Lorde told Rolling Stone that she spent the summer of 2023 in London during an intense breakup, where she isolated herself and truly looked inward, leading to the life changes that eventually led to the creation of Virgin. “I had this very acute sense that I needed to be alone to really meet myself,” she said.

Lorde slyly nods to her ongoing gender identity journey, singing, “Some days I'm a woman, some days I'm a man.” On the chorus, she alludes to shirking the “wise beyond her years” label put upon her when she rose to fame at age 16 in 2013. “I might have been born again,” she sings. “I'm ready to feel like I don't have thе answers / There's pеace in the madness over our heads.”

The “Hammer” video captures Lorde’s life-changing yet horny summer perfectly. Shot on location in London’s Hampstead Heath, where she spent time while making much of Virgin, she runs freely in the lake, gets a tattoo on her derrière, makes out in cars, and lies naked in a hammock. It’s standard coming-of-age fare, but for Lorde, it feels like a catharsis.

Lorde’s “Hammer” Lyrics

Read the full lyrics to Lorde’s new song “Hammer” below.

There's a heat in the pavement, my mercury's raising

Don't know if it's love or if it's ovulation

When you're holding a hammer, everything looks like a nail

The mist from the fountain is kissing my neck

The liquid crystal is in my grip

Anyone with a snake tongue, I show 'em the chambers of my heart

Now I know you don't deal much in love and affection

But I really do think there could be a connection

I burn and I sing and I scheme and I dance

Some days I'm a woman, some days I'm a man, oh

I might have been born again

I'm ready to feel like I don't have thе answers

There's pеace in the madness over our heads

Let it carry me o-o-o-o-on

On, ah ah

Today, I'll go to Canal Street, they're piercing my ears

I'm making a wish when the needle goes in

Take an aura picture, read it and tell me who I am (Show me who I am)

Now I know you don't deal much in love and affection

But I really do think you can make an exception

It's a beautiful life, so I play truant

I jerk tears and they pay me to do it, oh

I might have been born again

I'm ready to feel like I don't have the answers

There's peace in the madness over our heads

Let it carry me o-o-o-o-on

On, ah, ah, ah

Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah

Let it break me down till I'm just a wreck

‘Til I'm just a voice living in your head

It's a fucked-up world, been to hell and back

But I've sent you a postcard from the edge

The edge

Mm, oh, oh