Lorde Shares the Story Behind Her Cheeky Album Cover in Rare Interview

Lorde just gave the green light for her third studio album.

That's right! The 24-year-old singer is set to release Solar Power on August 20. The two-time Grammy winner spoke about her music during a rare late-night appearance on the June 21 episode of The Late Show. And while hosts would normally hold up the album cover of the record an artist is promoting, Stephen Colbert claimed he wasn't allowed.

"CBS' standards and practices will not let me hold up the album because, ironically for an album called Solar Power, there's a photo on it of, well, where the sun don't shine," he said. "I think it's a beautiful album cover."

So, Lorde had to describe the cover to viewers. "My friend just took it," she explained about the photo. "It was just me jumping over a friend on a beach. For those who don't know, it is my butt kind of from below and I'm in a bikini. So, it's, like, a little hard core. But it was so joyful to me. It felt, like, innocent and playful and a little bit, like, feral and I don't know sexy."

Musicians Performing Live on Stage

Colbert agreed the picture "matches the moment."

"It's so free and happy," he continued. "If I had a butt like that, I'd be jumping over somebody. too."

And as Lorde put it, "You gotta do it while you've got it, you know?"

Lorde also released her single "Solar Power" earlier this month. And fans will be able to hear her perform her tracks soon. The "Royals" star is setting out on an international tour next year.

"I'm really excited, yeah," Lorde said. "It sort of doesn't seem real. But I'm super keen. I think this album was so joyful and big and such a good thing to experience with a bunch of people. So, I'm glad the timing worked out that I can do a tour."

While Solar Power marks Lorde's first album in four years, she's been teasing her work for quite some time and recently hinted at what fans can expect. "The album is a celebration of the natural world, an attempt at immortalizing the deep, transcendent feelings I have when I'm outdoors," she wrote in a recent email. "In times of heartache, grief, deep love or confusion, I look to the natural world for answers. I've learned to breathe out and tune in. This is what came through."