Ryan Adams "Bad Blood" cover: Hear the first full track from his 1989 Taylor Swift cover album.

Ryan Adams Shares “Bad Blood,” the First Full Track From His Taylor Swift Cover Album

Ryan Adams Shares “Bad Blood,” the First Full Track From His Taylor Swift Cover Album

Brow Beat has moved! You can find new stories here.
Brow Beat
Slate's Culture Blog
Sept. 17 2015 2:39 PM

Ryan Adams Shares “Bad Blood,” the First Full Track From His Taylor Swift Cover Album

The official album art for Ryan Adams’ cover version of 1989.
Yes, it’s real.

Official album art for Ryan Adams’ 1989

Ryan Adams spent much of August teasing his forthcoming Taylor Swift cover album on social media. Now Adams’ 1989 finally has a release date—mark your calendars for noon Eastern on Monday, Sept. 21—and he has shared the first full track: his rueful rendition of “Bad Blood,” which premiered on Beats 1 Radio today.

Lest you thought of Adams’ 1989 as an extended practical joke or a confusing piece of performance art, his cover of “Bad Blood” proves otherwise: This is a thoughtful, fully realized, lovingly produced recording. With instrumentals reminiscent of Oasis and an emotionally raw vocal performance, Adams makes “Bad Blood” a far more nuanced-sounding meditation on betrayal and loss than Swift’s vengeful kiss-off of an original. And grammar nerds who shuddered at lines like “Take a look what you’ve done” will be happy to hear that Adams has taken some liberties with the lyrics and rhythms, making “Bad Blood” sound less confrontational and more conversational.

L.V. Anderson is a former Slate associate editor.