Lorde says she never expects to have another hit like 'Royals' and there aren't any 'smashes' on her new album

• Lorde reflected on her No. 1 debut single "Royals" in a recent interview with the New York Times.
• She said trying to recreate that song's success is a "lost cause," adding, "I'm under no illusion."
• Of her forthcoming third album "Solar Power," Lorde said, "There's definitely not a smash."

Days away from the release of her third album, Lorde is "under no illusion" that it'll recreate the success of her breakout single.

In fact, "She vowed to never again reach for the heights of 'Royals,'" according to the New York Times' Joe Coscarelli.

"What a lost cause," she told the Times. "Can you imagine? I'm under no illusion. That was a moonshot."

The 24-year-old singer-songwriter, whose real name is Ella Yelich-O'Connor, amassed global fame and admiration when "Royals" was released as her major-label debut in 2013.

The song spent nine weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, won two Grammy Awards, and became the 11th song in history to earn a diamond certification. It was ranked No. 8 on Insider's list of the decade's best songs.

That same year, Lorde dropped her debut studio album, "Pure Heroine," which received widespread acclaim and went three-times platinum. Her sophomore effort, 2017's "Melodrama," was met with less commercial success but similar cultish reverence among critics and fans.

Lorde will release her much-anticipated follow-up, "Solar Power," on August 20. She described the album's aesthetic as "twinkly" and warned Coscarelli not to expect any radio-friendly hits.

"There's definitely not a smash," she said. "It makes sense that there wouldn't be a smash, because I don't even know really what the smashes are now."

"I felt like I could just chill out and flex a little bit," she added.

The album's lead single, which shares the same title, was largely inspired by Len's "Steal My Sunshine" and early aughts pop acts like S Club 7. She told her coproducer, Jack Antonoff, that she wanted it to "sound like skateboarding." It debuted at No. 64 on the Billboard Hot 100 after it was released on June 10, the same day as the year's only solar eclipse.