“Since I was 17, I gave you everything. Now, we wake from a dream. Well, baby, what was that? What was that?” Lorde sings in the 15-second snippet.
A more recent Instagram also shows, among other things, the singer reviewing notes and working on music in a bedroom of Rome’s Hotel Locarno.
Fans have been keeping their eyes peeled for other hidden signals that may provide clarity over the Grammy Award-winning artist’s next direction — and if she’s hinting at another album.
While avid subscribers to Lorde’s ever-changing social media trail have received a free number and forged a newfound obsession with chain and DNA emojis, there’s another easter egg less talked about, which may hold clues to Lorde’s latest era.
Does tape hold the answer to Lorde’s new music?
One of the most pointed hints at album number four was Lorde’s latest embrace of tape — specifically, T-Rex Tape, crowned by Guinness World Records as the world’s “strongest”.
In June 2024, Lorde updated her Instagram profile to show her phone adorned in strips of the tape, which many assumed to be a cheap fix to a broken phone screen.
“Cheaper than Apple Care!” wrote one person on Reddit.
Yet a month later, the singer shared another photo of her plastic-covered devices on Instagram, stating they were “enjoying their collab with T-rex Tape”.
Up until recently, some fans continued to argue Lorde’s developing love for duct tape was a symptom of carelessness for her belongings.
Snapped taking a photo on her 28th birthday in November, Lorde stuck to the taped look — albeit with new strips — on the back of her phone, drawing ire from a few fans.
“Lorde girl stfu you have the money to buy a new phone or repair it instead of putting TAPE on it”, one wrote on X.
As the months rolled on, though, Yelich-O’Connor never shied away from the tape, and the WWT teaser video revealed it had made its way to her shoe.
Fans initially paid little attention to her mismatched tape look or found its meaning ambiguous within such a short video.
But once Lorde appeared with Charli XCX on Coachella’s main stage with the tape still on her shoe, keen-eyed observers began drawing connections.
“Anyone else noticed the tape on Lorde’s shoe during her Coachella appearance AND in her TikTok teasing WWT?!?!?” one fan shared to X.
“The tape on her shoe y’all better stream AND buy Lorde’s new album,” wrote another person.
Whether Lorde’s praise of tape is deliberate or not, let’s work out some of the theories people are running with.
What could the tape mean?
To get the ball rolling, let’s start with the most practical theories.
“Her shoe is broken, and she can’t let it go,” one person joked, adding she’s “just like me”.
“Needs to know which foot to lead with for a particular dance?” another proposed.
Yet neither point could explain why she’s been promoting tape on her socials for over a year now.
Some suggested the tape formed part of Lorde’s new aesthetic image, something that tends to change with each album release.
“It’s reflective tape and clothing bc it’s anti-paparazzi clothing!” one person purported on X.
Another thought Lorde was paying homage to the character Lisbeth Salander from Stieg Larsson’s Millennium series.
Some have viewed the tape as less about her personal style and more as a reference to her new music.
“Definitely smth about the album name”, wrote one person on X.
It could also be part of a sonic revival to her 2017 album, Melodrama.
In the song Hard Feelings / Loveless, supposedly written about her breakup with ex-boyfriend James Lowe in 2015, Lorde sings: “‘Cause I’m gonna mess your life up / Gonna wanna tape my mouth shut.”
More likely, however, the tape is reflective of Lorde’s fresh sound, with the star seeming to champion all things shiny and silver in 2025.
Beyond the duct tape, chains and monochromatic appeal, the singer has most recently been showing off her pants on Instagram.
The new photo, in which the singer’s reflective trousers and taped shoe are fully lit, has left many fans wondering whether Lorde is planning to drop the song, Silver Moon, next.
Silver Moon was played to the public only once at Sziget Festival in August 2023, and fans have been waiting ever since for it to be recorded and released.
Another song, Invisible Ink, was also debuted at the Budapest festival that same year.
While we put the speculation to bed, whatever reason Lorde has for her cryptic messaging, one fan put it nicely: “We are gonna hoard duct tapes this era”.
Tom Rose is an Auckland-based journalist who covers breaking news, specialising in lifestyle, entertainment and travel. He joined the Herald in 2023.
