Charlie Puth Tells Fans He's 'Contractually Obligated to Release' a New Album Next Year

The star's last album, 'Charlie,' was released in 2022

Ready or not, new Charlie Puth music is coming.

The "Attention" singer, 33, who wrapped an Asian tour last week, spoke to fans in a recent Q&A about when they can expect his fourth studio album to arrive — and it's sooner than you may think.

"The top of next year," said Puth of when he'll release the follow-up to his 2022 album, Charlie, according to a video shared on social media.

He also seemed to poke fun at the years-long breaks he's taken between full-length projects: "So not five years, not four years — next year."

Whether or not Puth is ready to drop an album may not be relevant at the moment, as the "Left and Right" musician added that he's "contractually obligated to release something next year."

Last month, the star — who's married to wife Brooke Sansone — released the festive song, "December 25," in honor of the holiday season.

"I wrote and recorded 'December 25' completely on a whim a few weeks ago in my studio while working on my new album," he said in a statement at the time. "and though it sounds absolutely nothing like anything on the album, I figured why not share it for the holidays. So here you go…"

Related: Why Charlie Puth Doesn't Have a 'Dream Collab' in Mind Ahead of His Next Album (Exclusive)

The track marked Puth's second solo release of 2024. He released the song "Hero" in May following some encouragement from Taylor Swift in a lyric from the title track of her latest album, The Tortured Poets Department.

"You smoked then ate seven bars of chocolate / We declared Charlie Puth should be a bigger artist," sang the 14-time Grammy winner.

Alongside the "Hero" announcement in May, Puth wrote a lengthy Instagram caption about the song.

Related: Michael Bublé, Jennifer Hudson, Charlie Puth and More Release Christmas Music in Time for the Holidays

"My new song HERO is about when you see someone you love hurting themselves, ruining the things in their life that are good, but you just can’t save them," he said at the time. "It’s one of the hardest songs I’ve ever had to write, but I wrote it in hopes that you’ve gone through something similar in your life, and that it can fill in the BLANK for you like it did for me."

"I’m very excited to share my next album with you, especially this song because it’s a great representation of what’s to come. I’ve never put out a song like this before- it’s very different for me, but I want to thank @taylorswift for letting me know musically that I just couldn’t keep this on my hard drive any longer," Puth added of the “Cruel Summer” singer.

In an interview with PEOPLE, however, he said "Hero" won’t appear on his next album.