Taylor Swift might have been a touring machine in 2011, but she somehow found the time to prep a new album for 2012. Hot on the heels of her chart-topping ‘Speak Now’ LP, the country pop sweetheart is gearing up to release her fourth studio album in 2012. Although concrete details are scarce as of right now, the new album is said to be centered around a theme of sadness and heartbreak, feelings Swift is all too familiar with after going through a series of highly-publicized breakups.
While Swift’s past albums have included tracks about heartache and longing, there were always some lighthearted tunes to serve as a buffer. However, for her new 2012 album, Taylor Swift seems to be focusing exclusively on these types of sorrowful and pensive emotions. In a past interview, Swift spoke about the new album’s subject matter, saying, “[My albums] all seem to have a theme to them, the records that we’ve put out so far, and this one is no different. It’s very different in what it’s about, but it’s no different in the fact that it has its own name.”
Swift has also gone on to explain the tone of some of the tracks, saying, “They’re sad. If I’m being honest,” explaining that one song “is about moving on.” In an interview with Vogue, Ms. Swift also said, “There’s just been this earth-shattering, not recent, but absolute crash-and-burn heartbreak, and that will turn out to be what the next album is about. The only way that I can feel better about myself — pull myself out of that awful pain of losing someone — is writing songs about it to get some sort of clarity.”
Back in October 2011, Swift said that she already had “25 songs” for her new 2012 album. She said, “I’ve written 25 songs so far, so it’s coming along really well. I’ve been writing a lot, and I like to take two years to make a record. We’re at the end of year one, and I still have a year left to go write. It’s looking really great.” So, if she lives up to her word, Taylor Swift fans could have her new album in their music libraries as early as October 2012.
Additionally, Swift has said that her new album will contain a lot of her own material (similar to past albums like ‘Speak Now’), but they she also had some help writing certain tunes. “I’ve had two co-writes, and I’ve written the rest of it by myself,” Swift says. “Co-writing is so much fun when you have time to schedule it in, but for me, usually songs hit me in the middle of the night and I end up writing it before dawn, so there’s no time to call somebody. When there is time and you can get in a room and talk it out and work it out with somebody, it’s like the coolest form of therapy.”
Although it hasn’t been confirmed as an album track for her 2012 release, Taylor Swift released a new song entitled ‘Safe & Sound‘ with alt-country duo the Civil Wars. Swift and the Civil Wars released ‘Safe & Sound’ for the ‘Hunger Games’ soundtrack, so it’s likely that this slower-paced, ambient tune (whose tone and lyrics match up with the movie’s plot beautifully) will not appear on the track list for Swift’s 2012 LP. However, she could switch things up and include it — who knows!
Stay tuned with PopCrush for more updates on the new Taylor Swift album for 2012 once more details surface.