Last night, alternative country star Ryan Adams released his eagerly anticipated new album “1989,” a remake of Taylor Swift’s pop album “1989.”

Swift began her career as a country star, and her “1989” was billed as her first full-blown pop album, hitting no. 1 as soon as it was released last year. Adams’s version returns Swift’s music to its countrified roots, replacing dance beats and pop polish with rock stomp and country twang on moody reinterpretations of such hits as “Bad Blood,” “Blank Space” and “Shake It Off.”

Adams...