On Tuesday, the Kiwi musician updated her website with a new record cover, titled Solar Power, with a tagline "Arriving in 2021 ... patience is a virtue".

The news follows Lorde's first confirmed performance in three years, a headlining slot at Spain's Primavera Festival next year.

The Auckland-raised star, real name Ella Yellich-O'Connor, became an overnight success in 2013 with the release of her first album Pure Heroine with lead single Royals.

Lorde has eschewed traditional music release patterns since then, releasing just one album in the past eight years: 2017's Melodrama.

Both albums have been commercial and critical successes; last month Lorde and songwriter Joel Little received an industry award for reaching one billion streams of Royals.

In 2019, Lorde wrote a note to her millions of fans saying the heartbreaking death of her dog, Pearl, who "brought an immeasurable amount of joy and purpose into my world", would delay her third album.

Last year, she ended a social media hiatus to ask Kiwis to vote in the 2020 election, won by Jacinda Ardern's Labour party.

"Do it for our beautiful country and me. And next year I'll give you something special in return," she wrote.

She followed that with another note saying the music was "so f***ing good" and that she was "truly jazzed for you to hear it".

At long last, the music seems set to arrive.

The cover art is risque, capturing the pantless 24-year-old from below as she runs on the beach.

Between work on her music, Lorde has also produced a photo book called Going South about a trip to Antarctica.

Australian Associated Press