The folklore era will continue tonight at midnight.
Early Thursday, Taylor Swift surprised fans with the announcement of her ninth studio album, a "sister record" to folklore titled evermore.
"To put it plainly, we just couldn’t stop writing songs," Swift said. "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."
Per Swift, we can expect "some new (and longtime) friends" to join the proceedings this time around.
Previously, Swift explained, she's considered each album to be a "one-off era." With the folklore chapter, however, she felt the need to do something different.
"In making it, I felt less like I was departing and more like I was returning," she said.
The folklore era began with the surprise release of a new album back in July, less than a year after the "You Need to Calm Down"-featuring Lover. The album went on to land high on numerous year-end lists and is up for Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards.
The album was complemented in November with the release of the Disney+ special folklore: the long pond studio sessions. Below, peep a Vernon-assisted excerpt in the form of the always-makes-me-cry "exile."