We may be only a day away from the highly anticipated release of Maxwell‘s newest album, ‘blackSUMMERS’night,’ but the next few hours seem like nothing after a nearly 7 year wait.

Indeed, 2009 was the last time we got a full body of work from the Grammy winning crooner who recently revealed the wait was due to having to sift through over 300 songs to narrow down ‘SUMMERS’ – the second installment in a trilogy of similarly themed albums – to its present 12-song tracklist.

With only hours separating them from part 2 of the trio of opuses, some fans have already begun anticipating its follow-up [blacksummers’NIGHT] with fear there may be another 6-7 year wait before they can get their hands on it.  However, a recent chat with our friends at ‘EW’ should ease those fears as the singer not only revealed why he took such a lengthy break, but also that part 3 is already nearly completed!

Details on what you should expect from it await below:

Via EW:

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Did you plan to take a seven-year break between albums?
MAXWELL: It’s not like I was sitting around saying, “I’m going to make people wait.” I know it was frustrating. Believe me, it was just as frustrating for me as for those who were waiting for it.

EW: What was going on in your life?
MAXWELL:  So many things. I started traveling, and I lost a very, very important family member of mine about two years ago.  I [also] had anxiety about having to meet that challenge of [recording] a sequel to 2009’s BLACKsummers’night.

EW: How far along are you with the third part of your trilogy?
MAXWELL:  We’ll be done as I begin my arena run in the fall. I do not want to be 50 years old releasing the same-titled album, [but] I don’t want to oversaturate the market and be out there all the time.

EW:  What’s the overall vibe of part 3?
MAXWELL:  It will be on the darker side, but it will have a political edge that I don’t think I’ve ever touched on before. But I’m always a lover at the end of the day. There’ll be a love aspect, but there will be these hidden messages that sort of hint at something else.

Your thoughts?