Two days before Taylor Swift’s 31st birthday on Dec. 13, she’ll be releasing a brand new album called Evermore. Taylor made the surprise announcement about her new record on Dec. 10, just hours before its release date. “Ever since I was 13 I’ve been excited about turning 31 because it’s my lucky number backwards,” Taylor explained. “Which is why I wanted to surprise you with this now.”
The soon-to-be birthday girl revealed that the record will have 15 songs, with two songs on the bonus addition. The album also features duets with HAIM, The National and Bon Iver. This is the second full album that Taylor has released in 2020 — back in July, she surprised fans with her 8th album, Folklore. The record was announced in a similar fashion, just hours before it came out in full.
In addition to the album, Taylor will also be releasing a music video for the track “Willow” at midnight on Dec. 11. “Tonight, the story continues, as the music video for “willow” drops at midnight eastern,” Taylor said. “I’m forever grateful to the creatives who have helped and guided me to be able to direct my own videos.” She also noted that the video set had a “medical inspector who made sue every precaution was taken for [safety]” amidst the coronavirus pandemic.
Evemore is considered folklore’s “sister record,” according to Taylor. “To put it plainly, we just couldn’t stop writing songs,” she gushed. “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 this forest of this music. We chose to wander deeper in. I’ve never done this before. In the past, I’ve also treated albums as one-off eras and moved onto planning the next one after an album was released. There was something different with folklore.”
For Evermore, Taylor teamed up with her Folklore collaborators Aaron Dessner, Jack Antonoff, William Bowery (who’s really her boyfriend Joe Alwyn) and Justin Vernon (Bon Iver) once again. However, they also “welcomed some new (and longtime) friends” to be part of the process this time around.