Lorde pictured with US artist Jim-E Stack amid rumours of split from Justin Warren

US artist Jim-E Stack shared a photo of Lorde on his Instagram amid rumours the pair are working on her new album together. Photos / Jim-E Stack, Getty Images

New Zealand pop star Lorde has been pictured out in New York with American artist Jim-E Stack in a rare public appearance.

It’s rumoured he is helping her produce a new album, after the Kiwi artist wiped her Instagram profile last month and shared a cryptic post including several photos of herself with a black eye.

Lorde, 27, hasn’t been photographed with former boyfriend Justin Warren, a music executive, since March 2023. In September last year, she told fans in an email newsletter she was “living with heartbreak again”, appearing to confirm her split from Warren.

In August this year, the producer – real name James Harmon Stack – shared a photo of Lorde working from a laptop in a studio.

In September, she posted a series of photos on her Instagram, including four selfies of her apparent black eye, one of a dessert, and one of a navy cap embroidered with the words “Do you have the stones?”.

It led to speculation from fans that a new “hit” album is on the way – while one commented jokingly, “Girl, so concussed” in reference to her collaboration with Charli XCX on the Girl, So Confusing remix in June.

Lorde has once again teased her upcoming fourth album with a cryptic Instagram post. Photo / Lorde

Lorde hasn’t released a new album since Solar Power in 2021.

In June, she shared several photos of herself leaning over a balcony with the caption, “Use the existing tools wherever possible” followed by several symbols.

Last year, Lorde celebrated a decade of her debut album Pure Heroine, which made her a household name at the age of 17 and landed her two Grammy Awards. She went on to release her sophomore album Melodrama in 2017, and Solar Power in 2021 that left fans and critics alike divided, though it hit No 1 in New Zealand and Australia.

Lorde admitted in 2022 that she found the response to the album “painful”.

“It took people a while to get the album – I still get emails every day from people who are just coming around to it now! – and that response was really confounding and at times painful to sit with at first,” she said at the time.