Taylor Swift announces second surprise album, ‘Evermore,’ a ‘sister’ record to ‘Folklore’
Taylor Swift #TaylorSwift
Taylor Swift has been much busier in quarantine than we thought. Following the surprise release of Folklore, the Disney+ Folklore concert special, and a snippet of her re-recordings, the soon-to-be 31-year-old singer announced yet another album she recorded during lockdown, titled Evermore. And the record, now her ninth studio album, will be released at midnight tonight.
“It is the sister album to Folklore, but it’s all brand-new songs,” Swift said in a video message that aired on Good Morning America Thursday. “We basically just couldn’t stop writing and I am absolutely elated to be able to share it with you tonight.”
She offered more thoughts on this next musical expression in a thread on Twitter, revealing that this album was also written with producers Aaron Dessner and Jack Antonoff, William Bowery (who we now know to be her boyfriend, actor Joe Alwyn), and Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon. The songs include recordings with Haim, The National, and Bon Iver.
“To try and put it more poetically, it feels like we were standing on the edge of the folklorian woods and had a choice: to turn and go back or to travel further into the forest of this music. We chose to wander deeper in,” she wrote. “I’ve never done this before. In the past I’ve always treated albums as one-off eras and moved onto planning the next one after an album was released. There was something different with folklore. In making it, I felt less like I was departing and more like I was returning.”
“I loved the escapism I found in these imaginary/not imaginary tales,” Swift continued. “I loved the ways you welcomed the dreamscapes and tragedies and epic tales of love lost and found into your lives. So I just kept writing them. And I loved creating these songs with Aaron Dessner, Jack Antonoff, WB, and Justin Vernon. We’ve also welcomed some new (and longtime) friends to our musical kitchen table this time around…”
Evermore and an accompanying music video Swift directed for track “Willow” will be released at midnight heading into the Friday a.m. hours. The other songs include “Champagne Problems,” “Gold Rush,” “‘Tis the Damn Season,” “Tolerate It,” “No Body, No Crime (feat. Haim),” “Happiness,” “Dorothea,” “Coney Island (feat. The National),” “Ivy,” “Cowboy Like Me,” “Long Story Short,” “Marjorie,” “Closure,” and “Evermore (feat. Bon Iver).” The deluxe edition of Evermore will come with two bonus tracks, “Right Where You Left Me” and “It’s Time To Go.”
Through additional thoughts shared on Twitter, the singer said she wanted to bring this work out now, as she’s about to turn 31 in a few days, because 31 is her lucky number backwards.
“I also know this holiday season will be a lonely one for most of us,” Swift tweeted, “and if there are any of you out there who turn to music to cope with missing loved ones the way I do, this is for you.”
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