‘I’m asking for your patience’: Lorde delays release of new album following death of dog

‘A light that was turned on for me has gone out,’ musician wrote

Lorde performs during her concert at the Corona Capital Music Festival in Mexico City in November 2018 (CLAUDIO CRUZ / AFP)CLAUDIO CRUZ/AFP/Getty Images)

Lorde has delayed the release of her new album following the death of her dog Pearl.

In a note written to subscribers of her newsletter, the “Green Light” singer revealed that Pearl, who she adopted in 2018, died last month following a series of 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.”

Lorde went on to explain that Pearl was “instrumental” to her songwriting.

“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.”

As a result, Lorde wrote, her third album has been delayed.

“I’m asking for your patience, as 2020 comes around and you start to wonder where the next record is,” she continued. “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 crystallises 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.”

Lorde’s critically acclaimed last album, Melodrama, was released in 2017.

She is also the second pop star to announce the death of their dog this week. On Thursday (31 October), Sia wrote on Twitter that her dog Pantera had died at the age of 16.