Taylor Swift surprised fans with a new album titled Evermore, her second album of this year, saying “we just couldn’t stop writing songs.” Evermore comes less than five months after Swift’s eighth studio album Folklore.
The award-winning singer described the 15-track album as a “sister record” to Folklore, which she produced entirely during the coronavirus lockdowns and released unexpectedly in July. Folklore, a change of style that showed an indie-folk sensibility, earned Swift some of the best reviews of her career as well as triggering six Grammy nominations, including for the coveted album of the year.
“To put it plainly, we just couldn’t stop writing songs,” Swift wrote on Thursday. “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 in your lives. So I just kept writing them,” she added.
The mysterious William Bowery, who Swift last month revealed was a pseudonym for her British actor boyfriend Joe Alwyn, is also credited as a co-writer on the new album.
Evermore features collaborations with alternative artist Bon Iver and Aaron Dessner, guitarist with indie rock band The National
Taylor also dropped the music video for its lead single ‘Willow’, which she directed herself.
In the YouTube chat before the album’s premiere, Swift revealed the meaning behind the visual. “One scene represents how I feel about fame,” she said.
