The lyrics of the song, which is 3m 13s long, dually detail the singer exploring lower Manhattan and also setting out on a journey of self-discovery.
In the second verse, Lorde sings, “Today I’ll go to Canal St, they’re piercing my ears, I’m makin’ a wish when the needle goes in, Take an aura picture, Read it and tell me who I am.”
Unlike the previously released singles from Virgin, Man Of The Year and What Was That, a music video for Hammer hasn’t yet been released. A trailer for the video can be viewed on the singer’s YouTube account, which shows the 28-year-old running through London’s Hampstead Heath. Directed by Renell Medrano, the video is expected to be published today.
In May, Rolling Stone journalist Brittany Spanos talked to the Aucklander about her gender identity, after previewing that on Hammer Lorde sings “Some days I’m a woman, some days I’m a man”.
Lorde shared that fellow singer Chappell Roan had inquired whether she was non-binary, to which she responded, “I’m a woman except for the days when I’m a man”.
“I know that’s not a very satisfying answer, but there’s a part of me that is really resistant to boxing it up.”
Lorde said she now described herself as “in the middle gender-wise" but called herself a cis woman and used she/her pronouns.
She also acknowledged her privilege as a “wealthy, cis, white woman,” saying it allowed her to explore identity privately without facing the risks many others do when their gender doesn’t align with their birth assignment.
Lorde also told the magazine she was “terrified” to open up about the album.
“There’s going to be a lot of people who don’t think I’m a good girl any more, a good woman. It’s over,” she told Spanos.
“It will be over for a lot of people; for some people, I will have arrived. I’ll be where they always hoped I’d be.”
In the final lines of the song, Lorde says, ”It’s a f***ed up world, been to hell and back, but I’ve sent you a postcard from the edge."
Hammer is the last single the singer will put out before Virgin is released next Friday.
