The National’s Mysterious, Password-Locked Preview Of Their New Album Seems To Hint At Collabs With Taylor Swift And More

Earlier this week, The National sent cryptic postcards to fans in the mail that seemed to tease a new album. Today, January 13, the band got even more mysterious by tweeting the link americanmary.com/lp9 — which we can probably assume means the next album is titled American Mary and is on its way.

The site is password-protected, but luckily, the password, “EVIL FOREBODINGS,” was shared by fans in the replies. It leads to a video of an open book that’s soundtracked by snippets of brief songs. The book reads “LETTER 1,” and it’s addressed to “Mrs. Bridgers, England.” There are also mentions of “Taylor” and “Uncle Sufjan.” It’s believed that Phoebe Bridgers, Sufjan Stevens, and Taylor Swift will be featured on the LP after a leaked tracklist with their names on it circulated. Bridgers will apparently appear on two tracks: “This Isn’t Helping” and “Your Mind Is Not Your Friend.”

Last year, The National debuted three songs live in Spain: “Tropic Morning News (Haversham),” “Grease In Your Hair (Birdie),” and “Bathwater (Mount Auburn).” The former two still remain unreleased, while “Bathwater (Mount Auburn)” ended up being unveiled as “Weird Goodbyes,” a collaboration with Bon Iver. It came out in August following promotional posters all over Brooklyn getting fans excited.