Taylor Swift Announces Ninth Album ‘Evermore’

Folklore was one of the top albums of the year — but Taylor Swift isn’t done. Swift announced her ninth studio album, and second surprise LP of the year, Evermore on Instagram Thursday morning.

“To put it plainly, we just couldn’t stop writing songs,” she wrote on Instagram after blocking out her feed with one image, as she did when she announced Folklore back in July. She refers to Evermore as her eighth album’s “sister record” and reveals that Aaron Dessner, Jack Antonoff, Justin Vernon, and “William Bowery” (a pseudonym for her boyfriend Joe Alwyn) worked with her on this new album as well.

“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,” she added. “We chose to wander deeper in. 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. 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.”

Joining their “musical kitchen table” this time around will be Haim and the National, Dessner’s band. Bon Iver will also be duetting with Swift once more. Evermore will drop at midnight EST along with a video for its first single “Willow.” The album is 15 tracks long with two bonus tracks available on the physical editions, which will be available on her website.

“Ever since I was 13, I’ve been excited about turning 31 because it’s my lucky number backward, which is why I wanted to surprise you with this now,” she adds. “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.”