Lorde's new album title is inspired by her 2019 Antarctica trip

Last month Lorde announced a new photo book documenting her 2019 trip to Antarctica. She visited the continent after becoming more environmentally aware and reigniting a childhood fascination with the continent. 100% of Lorde's net proceeds from sales of the book will go to the organisation that facilitated Lorde’s trip, Antarctica New Zealand, which will help "to support a postgraduate scholar to study climate change science."

In a new interview with New Zealand’s Newshub, Lorde confirmed that her long-awaited third album does have a title, even if she's not willing to share it just yet.

Lorde said, "It’s such an alien environment and it’s so dazzling, straight away. I had this very distinct moment of thinking, 'This is the coolest your life will ever get. Like, this is it'."

She added, "I actually decided on the album name right around that trip. Just coming back from that trip I thought: ‘This is what it is'."

In November Lorde also wrote a piece for New Zealand’s Metro magazine that saw her highlight the desperate action required to slow down climate change. She wrote, "Being in Antarctica isn’t always fun, exactly. It’s thrilling and spiritually intense, but as the days go on, I find it hard to shake the thought that I really shouldn’t be here. It’s so clearly not an environment fit for humans to inhabit. The sheer effort it takes me to stay alive for five days while the continent does its best to expel me is exhausting."

Lorde continued, "Being in Antarctica has clarified how deeply vulnerable, how in need of protection, it is. But it took coming here for that knowledge to galvanise – and in coming here, I have also been a small part of its deterioration."