Yeah when a season is mentioned for an official release, I always assume they're talking about astronomical seasons, because, as demonstrated above, meteorological seasons don't make sense on a global scale
So the album is 100% coming this year according to the announcement, but I hope we're looking at late October more than mid-December!
I still can't believe it's going to be the 1st full album since MiJ, and I really loved most of the singles... so excited!