Taylor Swift Will Drop Her Surprise Eighth Album at Midnight Tonight 

• Taylor Swift revealed on Instagram (opens in new tab) that she's dropping a surprise eighth album, folklore, tonight at midnight.
• Swift will also release the first music video for "cardigan" tonight, which she wrote and directed herself.
• Her last album, Lover, came out under a year ago, in August 2019.

Swifties, find something—anything—to sit on and sit yourselves down right now: Taylor Swift just announced she's releasing her eighth studio album, titled folklore, at midnight tonight, in a surprise Instagram announcement that came completely out of the blue. Swift usually takes at least two years to release a new album, but folklore will drop less than a year after her previous release, Lover. What's more, she's usually a fan of dropping carefully crafted hints and clues for her fans to decipher, but this time it's unlikely even the most devoted Swifties saw this coming.

"Before this year I probably would’ve overthought when to release this music at the ‘perfect’ time, but the times we’re living in keep reminding me that nothing is guaranteed," she explained. "My gut is telling me that if you make something you love, you should just put it out into the world. That’s the side of uncertainty I can get on board with."

Swift wrote and recorded the album in isolation, she said on Instagram. She also revealed three of her collaborators on the album, who she called her "musical heroes": The National's Aaron Dessner, Bon Iver, William Bowery, and Bleachers' Jack Antonoff.

The first music video from the album, "cardigan," will also drop tonight—and Swift wrote and directed it herself.

Swift also shared the 16-song tracklist for the album, revealing that the deluxe CD editions will feature a bonus song, "the lakes." It seems safe to assume that track number one, appropriately titled "the 1," is a tribute to boyfriend Joe Alwyn, while you can consider me extremely interested in track 12, "mad woman."

Well, Swifties, hasn't this Thursday got off to a good start!