The singer announced the 'Folklore' follow-up just ahead of its release on Thursday.
Taylor Swift shocked fans on Thursday by announcing a Folklore follow-up album -- and now, Evermore is here!
The singer dropped the surprise album -- which features 15 tracks, plus two bonus tracks on the physical edition -- on Friday, sharing with fans the creative process that led her to the spiritual sister of her newly GRAMMY-nominated album.
"To put it plainly, we just couldn’t stop writing songs," she said on social media. "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."
Swift shared more about the creative burst that led her from Folklore to Evermore ahead of the new album's release on Thursday. She answered fans questions in the YouTube chat ahead of the "Willow" video release, explaining that she sees Evermore as the "fall/winter" to Folklore's "spring/summer" vibes, that she had just finished writing one of the songs ("Happiness") last week, and that she wrote three songs with "William Bowery," a pseudonym for her boyfriend, Joe Alwyn.
"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," the singer said on social media earlier in the day. "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. So I just kept writing them."
Evermore includes creative collaborations with Jack Antonoff, The National's Aaron Dessner, Bon Iver's Justin Vernon, and Alwyn -- all of whom contributed to Folklore. The album also "welcomed some new (and longtime) friends to our musical kitchen table," including HAIM, and The National, officially.
"Ever since I was 13, I’ve been excited about turning 31 because it’s my lucky number backwards, which is why I wanted to surprise you with this now," Swift said of the Evermore release. "You’ve all been so caring, supportive and thoughtful on my birthdays and so this time I thought I would give you something! I also know this holiday season will be a lonely one for most of us 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."
Evermore is out now. Stream it: Amazon / Apple / Spotify
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