Swifties, sound the alarms: Taylor Swift is preparing to take over the charts yet again. On Sept. 23, the 14-time Grammy winner announced not just one (ahem, see the “Patient Zero” announcement from just the day before), but *four new songs, all releasing Friday, Sept. 25. The songs are part of The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore, a deluxe version of Swift’s most recent album.
Swift took to Instagram to make the announcement. “About a year ago, you guys did a truly unfathomable thing. Something that completely blew my mind,” she wrote. “You gave The Life of a Showgirl the biggest first week for an album in history.” TLOAS: The Encore was seemingly brought to life during a trip to Sweden Swift took to celebrate the original album with Max Martin and Shellback, the two co-producers and co-writers on the original album. “We just wanted to reflect and take in how grateful we were for the moment we were in, but there was a studio there and we did what we do when we feel anything at all: We wrote more songs. I hope you love them, because they were born out of pure gratitude for your exuberance for and celebration of the album we made.”
As to be expected with Swift, new music means new hints, Easter eggs, and clues to decipher and discover. Swifties are losing their minds over the sudden announcement, doing everything from analyzing the song titles to finding hints about this deluxe edition from music videos for the original album.
Thanks to the album countdown on Spotify, we know the four new songs are titled: “Patient Zero,” “Cleveland!,” “Pink Clouding,” and “Babylon.” That second song is especially drawing attention — due to Swift’s husband, Travis Kelce, originally being from Cleveland, it’s safe to assume that the new song could be about him.
Fans are also realizing that Swift has been seemingly hinting about The Encore for quite a while. Namely, they’re calling out a sign that reads “Patient for the encore” in the background of the “Opalite” music video. This, coupled with the jumble of words Swift used in her recent Law & Order: SVU skit for the Emmys, is stirring up all sorts of excitement across her fandom. (I mean, seriously, her mind!)
All in all, it looks like it’s shaping up to be yet another Taylor Swift autumn. TLOAS: The Encore is available for pre-save on Spotify and pre-order on Swift’s website. The album, along with the four new songs, will be out Friday, Sept. 25.