He namedropped Bob Mould as one his favorite musicians, but added in the same breath: “But then I also love all those songs on (Swift’s) “Fearless” (album)”.
Advertisement
This week, 40-year-old singer-songwriter Ryan Adams unveiled an unlikely new project: a song-by-song cover of Taylor Swift’s bestselling album 1989.
It’s tempting to dismiss Ryan Adam’s reworking of Taylor Swift’s 1989 as nothing more than a cheap trick, a symptom of an oversaturated media culture rapidly consuming itself.
Leah Greenblatt of Entertainment Weekly gave Ryan Adam’s redo of 1989 an A-minus rating, seeing the album as somewhat of a triumph in proving that good music is good music.
A collection of songs that in [Swift’s] hands was the sunny pop album of the decade has been strangely but not unnaturally transmuted into the heartbreak album of the year.
Swift released the original album – her first full-blown pop record – last October. In his Yahoo Music piece, Willman quotes a radio interview with her: “There’s this longing, aching sadness in them that wasn’t in the original”. On Taylor’s 1989, they served as the announcement of the beginning of her second act as an artist, removing the then-24-year-old from her hometown and country roots and placing her at the doorstep of the Big City and Top 40, twinkling with anticipation and resounding with a newcomer’s confidence. Its pop production might glimmer, but it has all the echo of an empty room. “Dubbing it the most fragile thing” he’s ever done, he also described it thusly: “I think it will replace Love Is Hell for a deep fan as…like, this is the stuff“. There couldn’t be any more reason for popstar Swift to feel elated right now. The lyrics are the most obviously melancholy part of the album, but the music itself is filled with minor chords, odd progressions, and out-of-nowhere tonal shifts that evaporate nearly as quickly. Not with its woefully inferior versions of “Welcome to New York” and “Shake It Off”.
We’re pretty sure NYC’s global ambassador isn’t behind this one.
“Wildest Dreams” is probably the best example of Adams highlighting what’s best in Swift’s own songs, honing in on its melodic range and riding that chorus’ hook into the golden sunset of Reagan’s America. “Style” channels the unhinged swagger of The Replacements’ Paul Westerberg, and the plaintive americana of “How You Get the Girl” would sound at home on Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska. Adams’s melodrama may prove too much for some, but there’s no arguing that it stands as its own work.
Advertisement
Of course, nothing goes on in the world of entertainment without the twitterverse giving their view, and Ryan Adam’s covering Taylor Swift seems to be getting decent to outright raving reactions on social media.
