Taylor Swift is indeed including a collaboration with the Dixie Chicks on her next album, Lover. The album drops Friday (Aug. 23), and one of the new tracks Swift has shared online is a gorgeous Dixie Chicks collaboration titled "Soon You'll Get Better."

Rumors have been circulating widely that the song is about Swift's mother, Andrea, who is battling cancer. The lyrics appear to confirm that, with Swift opening the song by confessing that she was hiding her secret fears and putting on a brave face from the first time they had to visit the doctor's office onward.

She portrays her mother as the strong one, while she herself deals with the situation through denial.

"I know delusion when I see it in the mirror / You like the nicer nurses / You make the best of a bad deal / I just pretend it isn't real," she sings in the second verse.

Swift frames the song with simple acoustic guitar chords, with some light banjo and fiddle providing texture. That keeps the listener focused on the lyrics and her vulnerable vocal performance, while the Dixie Chicks' shimmering harmonies help lift the choruses.

She seems resigned that the situation may not turn out as she hopes it will by the final verse of the song, singing, "This won't go back to normal / If it ever was / It's been years of hoping / And I keep saying it because / 'Cause I have to," before returning once more to the idea that everything will get better soon.

Swift has been tight-lipped about her mother's cancer, but “there was a relapse that happened,” she tells Vogue in a recent interview. “It’s something that my family is going through.”

First hints that Swift, Natalie Maines and company might have something cooking came in May when the pop singer started dropping easter egg clues about the album in the music video for a song called "Me!" There was an old press photo of the country trio and the lyric "There's a lot of cool chicks out there." Then on the cover of Entertainment Weekly she was wearing a Dixie Chicks button. Add that to her forever-known fandom of the group and it was enough to raise suspicions.

Lover is Swift's seventh studio album and first since leaving Big Machine Records for Republic Records. The title track, "You Need to Calm Down" and "The Archer" are three more songs Swift has released ahead of the album's release. On Aug. 26 Swift is set to perform at the 2019 VMA Awards. Brandon Urie of Panic! at the Disco is the other person she collaborates with on Lover. See her three Instagram pics with the full track list below.

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