More than any other fan base in the music industry, Taylor Swift lovers are known for finding meaning in the tiniest details seen in her pictures, videos and lyrics, and they’re not wrong to do so. The singer-songwriter is known to place Easter eggs into her work, teasing upcoming projects, singles and more. Now, a new fan theory has emerged that suggests the superstar may have a surprise new album on the way, and there are plenty of reasons to believe there’s actually something behind these hopes and dreams.
A new article by BuzzFeed goes into extreme detail outlining all the many reasons why superfans believe Swift might have an album titled Karma, and why it might finally see the light of day soon. The set was reportedly written and recorded years ago, but the Grammy winner’s very public spat with Kanye West (and then his wife Kim Kardashian) forced her to change things up, instead inspiring her darker effort Reputation. Those who follow her extremely carefully believe that Karma exists and has been sitting in a vault somewhere for a long time, and now they’re hoping that it will be unleashed.
Swift fans often have theories about songs and albums, and more often than not, they’re wrong. Throughout the past year or so, the group has collectively predicted many dates and drops for her re-releases, and almost all of them have proved to be incorrect. There’s no way of telling for sure if they’re right about Karma, but its existence certainly isn’t difficult to believe, and it would make a lot of sense for Swift to share it sometime in 2022.
It’s only been a few months since Taylor Swift last released an album, but her past two drops have been exciting re-releases. She spent 2021 sharing the re-recorded editions of two of her most popular efforts, both labeled Taylor’s Version for legal reasons. The singer-songwriter is re-recording and re-releasing her first six albums in an effort to devalue the original masters, the rights to which have been sold more than once, and all without her blessing. Both Fearless (Taylor’s Version) and Red (Taylor’s Version) went right to No. 1 on the Billboard 200, sold extremely well and produced new (and old) hits.
The music industry and Swifties have been loving all the music coming from the musician, but no matter how successful the releases have been, they’re still largely old material. Each album comes with songs “from the vault” that haven’t been heard before, but the bulk of the tunes are slight reworkings of very familiar hits. Always one to be looking forward and planning, Swift has definitely been thinking of a way to include entirely new music into her rollout plan in between all of these re-releases. She’s sure to be successful even if she doesn’t do so, but it will likely take her a few years to dole out all of her reworkings, and it would be odd for her to not share anything current in all that time.
If Swift does in fact have an album that was largely, if not entirely, ready, it could be quite the gift to her right now. She’s busy re-recording all of her hundreds of songs, which is a massive undertaking—to say nothing of promoting them, filming videos, and so on. Writing, producing, recording and marketing an entire new full-length in between all of that work is extremely difficult to do, so pulling from the archives could be a blessing. If Swift were to share Karma, it would help her break up her re-release schedule, give fans something new to devour for a year or so, and she’d be able to make money off of work she’s already created.
Swift is also busy living her life and filming a new movie directed by David O. Russell, so while she might not have originally planned to drop Karma, 2022 (or maybe even 2023) might be the ideal time to pull it out of exile and share it with her legion of followers. The rumors suggest that the country titan has been teasing it for quite some time and that it features a pop-rock sound. That would also make it a perfect fit in today’s changing musical landscape, as guitars are back in fashion.
As is always the case with Swift, there are more suggestions and theories than facts, and nobody will know anything about Karma until she wants the world to. The evidence that the album exists, and that she wants her die-hard supporters to know about it, is mounting, and it’s incredibly fun to follow. Fans absolutely want to hear the project, and Swift now has more of a reason (many of them, in fact) to drop the set than ever, so it’s possible Swifties will finally get to prove their theories true.
