Ryan Adam's cover of Taylor Swift's "1989" was released early this week, and I have some thoughts about it. Let me preface this article by saying, I don't hate Ryan Adams; I think he is extremely talented in his singing, as well as songwriting. A little known fact is that he actually collaborated with Taylor Swift on the creation of "1989," and with that information I thought to myself, well that album is a masterpiece so he must be a legitimate musician, right? Well, maybe.
Once "1989" by Adams was released, my social media was blowing up by the one and only Taylor Swift. She was Instagramming, tweeting, and promoting this album on every form of social media possible. If Taylor is so avid about supporting this guy, his stuff must be good–or so one would think. Upon listening to Adams' "1989," I was frustrated by the fact that these covers did not give Swift's songs the respect they deserve. The beauty of Swift's "1989" is the fact the music and lyrics are cohesive with the emotion that they were created with. For example, Swift said about, "Out Of The Woods," that “this song is about the fragility and breakable nature of some relationships. This was a relationship where I was kind of living day-to-day wondering where it was going, if it was going to go anywhere, if it was going to end the next day.”
Swift does a fantastic job at expressing chaos, heartbreak and love through her music. However, Ryan Adams does not do the same. His covers are definitely cohesive to each other, just not with the emotion that was meant to be expressed through them. If you’re not familiar with Adams' music, he is a mix between Coldplay and Snow Patrol. He does covers of other songs and his music can be subjected to “listen to on a record player with a cup of tea in hand” music; Swift’s music is so much more than that.
However, not all of Adam’s songs are terrible, even though they are below par. If you’re interested in hearing his cover of "1989" for yourself, I would suggest listening to "Style," "Blank Space," and "I Know Places," but stay clear of "Shake It Off," "Clean," and "Out Of The Woods," because you will get frustrated. I am not saying that all covers of Taylor Swift songs are worthless and people should not even try. I have heard some covers of Swift’s songs that I have thoroughly enjoyed such as "Shake It Off" by Sabrina Carpenter, Mashup by Superfruit as well as many others, but Adams' cover doesn't make the list.
