Taylor Swift shocks fans with second surprise album of the year – but the clues were in front of us this whole time

Taylor Swift with her hair in a ponytail, wearing a checked coat, looking off into nature

Taylor Swift announced a surprise new album, evermore, and practically every queer person leapt for their cardigans once more.

The star lived up to her surname Thursday afternoon (10 December) when she announced she’s swiftly dropping a “sister” album to July’s folklore at midnight, because it’s her birthday on Sunday (13 December) and “31 is her lucky number backwards”.

Swift said that she and her team “couldn’t stop writing” new material after the release of folklore just five months ago, and that her ninth studio album will be entitled evermore.

Some Swifties immediately clocked that, just a couple of weeks ago, Swift tweeted that there is “not a lot going on at the moment”, when, you know, there clearly was a fair amount going on.

She actually tweeted that exact same line just a few months before dropping folklore. Taylor, this is why we have trust issues.

Others stressed that Taylor Swift really needs to calm down – some of us still haven’t processed folklore, let alone 17 new songs.

Please, Swift. We need a minute.

Others, well, capital letters. A lot of capital letters. 

Arriving at midnight Friday (11 December), evermore will include 17 new songs with features from Haim, The National and Bon Iver.

“I’ve never done this before,” Swift said on Twitter of evermore.

“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. I loved the ways you welcomed the dreamscapes and tragedies and epic tales of love lost and found into your lives.”
Let’s hope the new dreamscape we’re being welcomed to includes the sapphic spin of “betty” that we deserve.