Ryan Adams has exceeded expectations surrounding the Taylor Swift covers he began to tease in August on Twitter. When he first announced his aim to cover 1989 in full, no one knew whether to take it as an intricate joke, a hobbyist pastime, or a serious project. But since then, he’s made it clear that the Ryan Adamsization of 1989 was all of those things, and perhaps to the greatest extent, the latter. For he announced on Twitter this morning that preorders for the album — whose Instagram-hazy beach cover was also shared — will begin tonight, anticipating a September 21 release of the download, and a physical release on a later date.
His rendition of “Bad Blood” was also shared on Zane Lowe’s Beats 1 Radio. Lowe notes that on Monday, he’ll be conducting the first interview with Adams about the album, and there’ll “be a very special guest on the phone”; it’ll be surprising if this guest is anyone but Taylor Swift herself.
Back when Adams first began talking about the album, he’d described it as 1989 “as played by The Smiths,” but that’s not immediately apparent in this cover — as it sounds more like a 90s-balladized version of the pop hit. Listen to it over at Apple Music.