Ryan Adams - 1989

As a supporter and fan of Taylor Swift I feel the need to blog about one of her albums. Her most recent album, 1989, was released almost a full year ago this October. Recently the artist Ryan Adams released his project of a track-by-track cover of the album of 1989. With an emotional connection to the original album, Adams decided to remake it with the sound of the parents of younger Swift fans could appreciate. With sounds between Bruce Springsteen's Darkness On the Edge of Town and The Smiths' Meat is Murder  the sounds on the album fit perfectly for the decade Taylor is representing.

Although some songs don't live up to the original, the remake of a few make it seem like you're listening to the song for the first time all over again. The upbeat dance songs of the albums are turned into tentative/sad songs. "Out of the Woods" is turned into a rock ballad with the raw emotion showing through the cover. The most shocking cover to me is "Shake it Off". Being a song in which Taylor Swift pokes fun at herself and tells everyone to shake off the small things in life while dancing, Ryan Adams took a different approach and found the emotional resonance in a different way by turning the song into a ballad showing despair. This cover album has not mocked Taylor Swift but has shown the skeptics to her music that there is more depth and meaning to her songs beyond a first listen.

My all time favorite cover is "Wish You Would" maybe because it was the song on the original album that took me a while to really like it because it was way to "annoying pop" for me. The cover slows it down and you can really see the meaning behind the lyrics in it.

I would really consider giving this album (along with the original if you haven't already) a listen, not all the covers are amazing but there are a few gems.