Adams unveils full-album cover of Swift's 1989

Taylor Swift (above) is an object of study and inspiration in alt-country singer Ryan Adams' (above left) new album.
Taylor Swift (above) is an object of study and inspiration in alt-country singer Ryan Adams' new album. PHOTOS: REUTERS, EUROPEAN PRESSPHOTO AGENCY
Taylor Swift (above) is an object of study and inspiration in alt-country singer Ryan Adams' (above left) new album.
Taylor Swift is an object of study and inspiration in alt-country singer Ryan Adams' (above) new album.

NEW YORK • Alt-country singer Ryan Adams on Monday unveiled 1989, his full-album cover of pop queen Taylor Swift's multiplatinum record.

Swift did not participate in its creation, though she urged it on with ecstatic social media posts once Adams made his plans clear. Last month, she responded to early chatter about the project by tweeting: "is this true??????? I WILL PASS OUT."

DJ Zane Lowe of Apple Music's Beats 1 radio then premiered Adams' acoustic reinterpretation of Bad Blood. Adams and Swift did a joint interview with the DJ on Monday.

On Adams' 1989, Swift is an object of study, of fascination, of inspiration, of worship.

This release serves to make 1989 sound like a Ryan Adams album, which is remarkable for listeners more comfortable taking shots of pain from a tortured middle-aged man than an in-control woman.

He knocks the wind out of the sails of Out Of The Woods. An Adams version that comes close to besting the original is his morbid deconstruction of Shake It Off.

A good measure of how pompous an idea is may be the length of time it takes to be parodied. In the case of Adams' 1989, it was a little less than 17 hours, when roguish singer Father John Misty posted Velvet Underground-esque versions of Blank Space and Welcome To New York on SoundCloud.

A day later, though, those versions were removed. A representative for Swift said her team was not involved with the removal.

Father John Misty released a statement saying Velvet Underground frontman Lou Reed told him to take the songs down in a dream.

Adams' version has given 1989 something of a boost and he has not been this discussed in years.

NEW YORK TIMES

Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.

A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on September 24, 2015, with the headline Adams unveils full-album cover of Swift's 1989. Subscribe