There’s no time to sleep in this fandom as Taylor Swift’s clearly been busy in the studio. After much speculation, it’s been revealed today that she’s part of a new album by Big Red Machine and is featured on two songs. The band is made up of Aaron Dessner and Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, both of whom Taylor heavily collaborated with on her albums folklore and evermore.
When Taylor announced her next re-recorded album to be released will be Red (Taylor’s Version) on November 19, fans wondered what they would fill their time with during the five-month wait. Now it appears we have our answer!
Big Red Machine’s second studio album, How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last?, will be out on August 27. The title comes from its lead single ‘Latter Days‘, released today, and it appears Taylor even helped Big Red Machine make the decision.
“‘Latter Days’ is about childhood and nostalgia for a time before adulthood and loss of innocence — before you’ve made mistakes and lost people. A huge thank you to @taylorswift for pointing out that this question, which connects so many of the album’s themes, should be the album title,” Aaron wrote on Instagram.
The tracklist was published, which revealed that Taylor features on two songs: track four, ‘Birch,’ and track five, ‘Renegade’. Aaron also gave a brief glimpse into the first note of ‘Birch’, saying, “It’s absolutely brilliant, but it was very surprising when I heard it the first time. I can’t tell you what that interval is.”
https://twitter.com/TSwiftNZ/status/1409874907434033164
Meanwhile, ‘Renegade’ was recorded at Taylor’s Los Angeles Kitty Committee studio the same week she and Aaron won the GRAMMY for Album of the Year with folklore. A sneak peek of the lyrics is, “Is it too insensitive for me to say / Get your shit together so I can love you”.
Can it hurry up and be August already? There’s a possibility we won’t have to wait that long though, as Taylor has shared Big Red Machine’s cryptic countdown to her Instagram story, which ends Friday at 12am EDT/5am BST.