I'm sure by now you've heard the news that Taylor Swift has released her ninth album, Evermore.
The surprise drop on Friday came just five months after Taylor released her eighth album, Folklore, and has been just as well received as its predecessor.
However, anyone who knows anything about Taylor Swift will be able to tell you that her album rollouts are a veritable treasure hunt, with hints and clues and Easter eggs for fans to find and theorise over.
And this time around has been no different. For example, Taylor told fans that Folklore contained a trilogy of songs charting a teenage love triangle, with each track told from the perspective of one of the people involved and then left them to connect the dots.
And the two videos she's released for each album have contained nods to songs on the record.
I know we all know that the willow mv is a continuation from the cardigan mv but did anyone else notice that Taylor replaced her grand fathers picture with her grandmaโs picture this time? So it reflects which album has a song about them on. #evermorealbum
For example, in the video for "Cardigan," eagle-eyed fans noticed that Taylor had included a photo of her grandfather, who inspired the song "Epiphany" on Folklore. And in the video for "Willow," Taylor had replaced the photo with one of her grandmother, who inspired "Marjorie" on Evermore. And as yet another Easter egg, Taylor placed both tracks at number 13 on their respective albums.
So it was only a matter of time before fans began scouring Taylor's work and social media posts for more hints. And over the weekend, Swifties noticed the appearance of a mystery word in part of Folklore's album artwork.
If you look very closely at this image, you can see the word "Woodvale" in the top right-hand corner.
And fans immediately began theorising over what the word could mean.
WHAT THE FUCK DOES WOODVALE MEAN @taylorswift13
Some pulled up Google maps and discovered that there is a road called "Woodvale" in Pennsylvania right next to a school and a methodist church.
HELLO! In Reading, PA where Taylor grew up I just found a Methodist Church and a few schools right by WOODVALE AVE. "I parkะตd my car right between the Methodist And thะต school that used to be ours" - 'tis the damn season I AM TERRIFIED ๐คฏ
This directly corresponds to lyrics from Evermore's "'Tis the Damn Season".
Even more interestingly, though, "'Tis the Damn Season" is about a girl named "Dorothea," who also appears in another song with the same title. And during a fan Q&A last week, Taylor explained that in her mind, Dorothea went to the same school as the characters from the teenage love triangle in the songs "Cardigan", "August", and "Betty" from Folklore.
The connection to these other songs therefore made fans speculate that Taylor is planning a surprise release of a third album called Woodvale that also has links to Folklore and Evermore.
THREAD: Taylor Swift is going to release a THIRD SISTER ALBUM - and hereโs why. First, the love triangle introduced in folklore - three people. Folklore seems to be from the perspective from Betty, as her pov song was the first and only single. Now sheโs releasing evermore tn
Who else thinks there's going to be a third album called Woodvale? cuzzz me too a trilogy just makes so much sense! We are getting TS10 sooner than we could have ever anticipated. Folklore, Evermore and Woodvale ๐ณ๐๐ฒ
yes i'm convinced about woodvale and the third album i am fully convinced and no no one can change my mind
However, Taylor herself has now shut the theory down. And during an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live, she explained that the appearance of the word "Woodvale" in the album artwork was actually a big mistake.
"I tend to be annoyingly secret agenty about dropping clues and hints and Easter eggs and it's very annoying," Taylor said. "But it's fun for fans and it's fun for me because they like to pick up on things."
"And sometimes I take it too far, and I make a mistake," she went on. "Basically, when I was making Folklore, I was too afraid to even unveil the title of the album to even my closest teammates in management. I didn't tell anyone the album title until right before it came out."
"And so I came up with a fake code name that had the same amount of letters as Folklore," she continued. "I chose a random name. I chose 'Woodvale.' I wanted to see how it'd look on the album covers, mocked them up and then decided: 'I don't actually want to have a title on the album cover,' and we forgot to take the fake code name off one of them."
And when Jimmy incredulously asked: "Is that true?!" Taylor revealed that she'd also given Evermore a code name.
"Evermore had a code name โ it was 'November,' but we remembered to take it off all the mock-ups of the album cover before we released them this time, so we learned our lesson," she said.
But despite Taylor's explanation โ and her admission that all the theorising had "exhausted" her โ fans are still not convinced and think that a third album could be on the way since she didn't explicitly deny that part of the theory.
yeah sure "woodvale" is just a random word. then how did detective swifties find a street in pennsylvania with the same name near a methodist church and a school haaaa how you explain that tayyy! ๐ญ she hates us lmao https://t.co/LdoBxE0mtF
guys maybe it's not woodvale, but she never denied that there could be a third album
taylor never denied the third album theory, she just said the WOODVALE theory is not true...... thinking......
Elsewhere in the interview, Taylor also acknowledged the fact that her boyfriend, Joe Alwyn, had collaborated with her on a number of tracks on both albums under the pseudonym William Bowery.
However, Taylor remained completely tight-lipped on what inspired the pseudonym.
You can watch Taylor's full interview right here.
