I would be a fool to say Taylor Swift has no talent. I personally think that she will be her generation’s Carole King, the balladeer of our current time. Girlfriend knows how to write a hit song. Swifties don’t hurt me, but I tend to think she is better suited as a writer than a performer/ singer.
So when Ryan Adams (who is in no way related to Canadian pop star Bryan Adams) released an entire album covering TSwift’s most recent project 1989, I was so excited to hear his take on her music.
This is NOT Ryan Adams, but I did buy this album when I was in high school.
Ryan Adams 1989 is so different from Taylor Swift’s. Somehow her songs are so much more appealing to me when they are not sung by a person who picks bitch fights with every person who has ever done them wrong. Even “Bad Blood” a song that, in my opinion is the most annoying song she has ever written and rhymes trusted with rusted instead of busted, doesn’t make my skin crawl the way Swift’s version does.
The first thing I noticed while listening to this album was that while Taylor’s album was titled 1989 as some of narcissistic way to pay homage to the year she was born, Ryan Adams took the songs and created an album that sounds like it was from the era that bears its name. It can’t be just me that noticed this right? Some of the songs are so reminiscent to songs that I grew up listening to that it feels straight up nostalgic.
“Welcome to New York” is transformed into a song you can image The Boss singing to a dancing Courtney Cox at a concert in New York. “Style” (probably one of my favorite songs on Swift’s 1989) reminds me so much of a song on a soundtrack for a John Hughes movie with an Adams’ twist on it, and if when listening to “I Know Places” you are unable to hear a nod to The Police you need to buy one of those “Time Life The Best of the 80’s” CDs that I would beg my mom for when in high school.
The entire album feels like an obvious reference to music from the 1980’s to me and I LOVE it.
The only exception for me is “Out of the Woods.” Adam’s version sounds like a song a troubadour at a Renaissance Faire would be playing for a group of people dancing the olden time dances. I definitely prefer Tay Tay’s version, but again, I don’t hate his version of it, its just so different from the rest of the album.*
Adam’s takes liberties with some of the lyrical phrasing to make these songs feel more like his, but not many. The absence of Taylor’s annoying breathy sighs is a huge plus for me too! Honestly I think Ryan Adams is a genius, but so is Taylor Swift. The fact that her songs could be so placed in such a different genre and go from pop music to straight up moving lyrical masterpieces says a lot about her as a writer.
This album is every bit, if not more so, compelling as the original. It’s a completely different album, but not. For a person like me who is much more of a Ryan Adam’s fan than a Taylor Swift fan, this album is the perfect hybrid of the past with current popular music. If you haven’t listened to it, do so immediately!
Stream the whole album on Spotify
* okay after listening to Ryan Adams’ “Out of the Woods” like 15 times I take back everything I’ve said about it when I wrote this yesterday. Its one of my favorites now.
