How Many Siblings Does folklore Have?

On the day that evermore—Taylor Swift’s “sister” album to folklore—dropped I was not at work and therefore could not read and silently judge my co-workers for whatever incorrect opinions I am sure they had of the album (any opinion that is not “evermore is better than folklore” is wrong). But I spent release day doing my Swiftie duty, listening, accepting, ruminating, and staring longingly out a window as “Champagne Problems” washed over me and I imagined an alternate universe where I too rejected a proposal for marriage. So while I didn’t get to explain all of my complex feelings about evermore to my co-workers who do their best to tune me out, Taylor Swift has given me an opportunity to rise again and be the annoying fan in a sea of anti-Swifts.

In an interview with Jimmy Kimmel, Swift was asked directly about the Woodvale conspiracy. What is the Woodvale conspiracy you ask? Swifties who dedicate themselves to finding each and every clue Swift leaves behind in a song or in her accompanying visuals discovered the word “Woodvale” on the album cover of folklore. Since there was no song titled Woodvale on either of the two albums, the natural next guess is that folklore had one more sibling waiting in the proverbial woods, possibly in time for a Christmas launch. The girls went nuts with anticipation and mama Swift had to put us all in check. Or did she?

During the interview with Kimmel where he directly asks about the word Woodvale, Swift talks about her enjoyment of easter eggs and how Woodvale was just a casual accident. She refers to the Woodvale incident as a mistake, explaining that Woodvale was the code name for folklore and a few mockups were done with that title. Allegedly her team forgot to remove the word on some of the album covers that went out. A likely story! At no point does Swift directly deny the existence of a third album. We also know for a fact that she’s been spending a relentless amount of time in the studio re-recording her earlier albums. The answer is right in front of us, somewhere, waiting to be discovered.

My two cents as a low-level Swiftie detective is that there is probably a third album but the title would not be Woodvale. Taylor Swift is consistent and if she’s doing a trio of albums all of the titles would rhyme. Based on a recent tweet she posted referring to herself as a witch, I’m going to guess that album three in the “rhymes with ore” trilogy will involve some sort of woodland magic terminology. Maybe she’ll call the third album grimoire and the cover will be a photo of her writing in a giant book in some sort of human-sized nest. After all, she’s got a blank space baby and she WILL write your name.