Ryan Adams 1989
I abhor listening to albums on YouTube, but in the case of Ryan Adams’ 1989—his track-by-track cover of Taylor Swift’s blockbuster—I can’t imagine hearing it anywhere else. For this project is the Internet incarnate, a possible joke cracked on Instagram (“Taylor Swift cover night 1. As played by The Smiths”) that immediately swelled into OMG, BEST THING EVER overkill. “Could be the album of the year,” proclaimed someone at Details, who clearly needs to be reminded of Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly. “Can [it] just get here already?” cried Billboard, after waiting for, like, a whole few weeks!
To be fair, Adams was teasing us with some primo sh*t. “Bad Blood,” the first full track that surfaced last week, was glorious enough to make anyone think a masterpiece was looming. By stripping the tune to its core, exposing all the pain and beauty in Swift’s No. 1 smash, Adams makes it very clear this isn’t some ironic prank. He’s obviously a fan, and “Bad Blood” is so pure at heart, it actually makes you forget about Taylor Swift.
But mimicking an entire project is risky business. You can’t listen to Camper Van Beethoven’s Tusk without thinking of Fleetwood Mac. You don’t watch Gus Van Sant’s Psycho without obsessing on Hitchcock. And I can’t imagine anyone preferring this 1989. Not with its woefully inferior versions of “Welcome to New York” and “Shake It Off.” I mean, it’s cute how Adams changed the lyrics to “Style” (“you’ve got that Daydream Nation look in your eye”), but hearing a grown man yell, “We never go out of style!” over punky power chords actually sounds kind of stupid.
Earlier this week, Father John Misty beat Adam at his own game by posting two Swift covers, each done in the style of The Velvet Underground. If he puts a whole collection together, it could be the album of the year.
