The Complete History (So Far) of Ryan Adams' Taylor Swift Cover Project

Intriguing, sure. But fans of either artist couldn’t have expected the deluge that followed. First came the pictures of lyrics marked up in a dim recording studio, promising the “saddest version of “Welcome to New York” ever” and a “Deep end smiths vibe” version of “Blank Space”.

And when Hasief Ardiasyah, an associate editor for Rolling Stone Indonesia, tweeted at Taylor about Adams’ project, she weighed in.

"I Know Places" #1989 @taylorswift13 this song is a battleship of a song. Rad pic.twitter.com/worYPjLvIF — Ryan Adams (@TheRyanAdams) August 14, 2015

Guitar coda of "I Know Places" ... Well, the beginning part anyway #1989 @taylorswift13 pic.twitter.com/C0nhDp68GP

— Ryan Adams (@TheRyanAdams) August 14, 2015

Adams posted that he was finished tracking the album on August 14 and followed that by saying the mixing process was under way. Three days later he had the whole project to a rough mix stage and kept dropping more clips.

Sneak peek of "Style" @taylorswift13 #1989 Whole record has a rough mix now!!!! pic.twitter.com/AjwMd5BVKO — Ryan Adams (@TheRyanAdams) August 18, 2015

Blank Space clip @taylorswift13 #1989 : ) pic.twitter.com/1aaz46U4Ui

— Ryan Adams (@TheRyanAdams) August 18, 2015

Nate Walcott is a genius. Holy moly. Piano vibes on @taylorswift13 Shake it off #1989 icing pic.twitter.com/9H42p0TGsP — Ryan Adams (@TheRyanAdams) August 19, 2015

Recording strings on Blank Space @taylorswift13 #1989 @sectionquartet I love this! pic.twitter.com/cTaYCwvCNc

— Ryan Adams (@TheRyanAdams) August 20, 2015

And don’t worry, “New Romantics” fans, he promised not to leave out the bonus tracks.

@TheRyanAdams @taylorswift13 yall r welcome. Art done. pic.twitter.com/D3N11MnaRv — Pete Lindberg (@peteontheipad) August 13, 2015