sat 07/12/2024

CD: Ryan Adams - 1989 | reviews, news & interviews

CD: Ryan Adams - 1989

CD: Ryan Adams - 1989

Work of art or fan-service curiosity? A little of both, actually...

Ryan Adams, reinventing Taylor Swift's multi-platinum pop behemoth

Back in the early 2000s, it was rumoured that Ryan Adams had covered Is This It by The Strokes in its entirety. According to my extensive cataloguing of the career of Americana’s enfant terrible, only “Last Nite” ever surfaced (I have a live version, which opens with a couple of versions of Madonna’s “Like a Virgin”), but the point is that Ryan Adams is no stranger to these sonic experiments.

Which is why, as a huge fan of both artists I have found it both amusing and perplexing to watch the internet collectively lose its shit over Adams’ version of Taylor Swift’s 1989.

The parallels between the two artists are actually pretty striking. Both owe their careers, in part, to the country scene (she, Nashville; he, North Carolina); both later developed an association with New York. And both have released an album for a year of the 1980s - it’s just that one of them was a vinyl-only release on the songwriter’s own label, and the other was an international multi-platinum-selling pop behemoth.

I’ve already described 1989 as the work of a skilled songwriter mature beyond her years, so Adams’ reinvention of its songs reveals few surprises: indeed, I got over the sad-eyed boy-with-an-acoustic-guitar cover of a pop song around my third show after Rihanna’s “Umbrella” came out, and I’m not the sort of critic who thinks your songs are somehow deeper if they reference Sonic Youth rather than James Dean. My biggest disappointment with Adams’ take on 1989 is really just how same-y the whole thing sounds after a while: the bright, jagged edges of “All You Had to Do Was Stay” are flattened; the giddy pop magnificence of “Blank Space” is reinvented as a finger-picked dirge that misses the point entirely. And while Adams’ “Welcome to New York” as dusty road movie soundtrack is enjoyable, it’s not a patch on Swift’s wide-eyed arrival bursting with possibilities.

But there are moments of grace and beauty here that elevate the collection above the fan-service curiosity it would have been in less able hands, and they - perhaps unsurprisingly - come on Swift songs that I never took to heart. “Bad Blood” could have been written for this format (although the video probably would have been different), while I wouldn’t be surprised if Adams’ sombre, piano-driven take on “This Love” showed up in a future Taylor Swift set, much like Noel Gallagher once took his “Wonderwall” to heart. I'll still be cueing up the originals after a spin of this one, though.

@lastyearsgirl_

Overleaf: compare Ryan Adams' "Bad Blood" with Taylor Swift's original

 



'Welcome to New York' as dusty road movie soundtrack is enjoyable

rating

Editor Rating: 
3
Average: 3 (1 vote)

Share this article

Add comment

The future of Arts Journalism

 

You can stop theartsdesk.com closing!

We urgently need financing to survive. Our fundraising drive has thus far raised £33,000 but we need to reach £100,000 or we will be forced to close. Please contribute here: https://gofund.me/c3f6033d

And if you can forward this information to anyone who might assist, we’d be grateful.

Subscribe to theartsdesk.com

Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.

To take a subscription now simply click here.

And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?

newsletter

Get a weekly digest of our critical highlights in your inbox each Thursday!

Simply enter your email address in the box below

View previous newsletters