Ryan Adams - 1989

It has been trumpeted as one of the musical events of the year and in a way it is: reimagining Taylor Swift’s 1989 in an indie style is surely a fascinating idea.
But we should perhaps resist the temptation to view Adams’ riff on Swift’s pop juggernaut as a major new chapter in one of the most simultaneously beguiling and baffling careers in alternative rock. Because, the truth is that, for the ex-Whiskeytown leader, the undertaking in all likelihood represents a very specific musical adventure – nothing more, nothing less.
Indeed, though the artist credits 1989 with getting him through a tough Christmas (his first since splitting from wife Mandy Moore), his take on these songs is winningly amiable. Adams has come not to re-construct Swift for the craft-beer chugging crew, but to pay gentle homage to an artist he genuinely digs. It’s a modest ambition – one the project effortlessly lives up to.
Adams’ canniest gambit is to present Swift’s songs as gauzy indie ditties, a sensibility that arguably also infuses the original recordings. He croons, he sighs, he strums his guitar with old-pro languidness – in the process fleshing out the autumnal angst, already glimmering at the edges of Swift’s cheer-leader voice. Hitting town with her posse, Taylor may indeed be the life and soul of the party – but when the crowd exits, you suspect that she may be all too familiar with the melancholia Adams has spent the past 15 years in creative dialogue with. Sad, sassy, and very, very catchy, here Adams has hatched the perfect Tay-Tay tribute.

KEYTRACK: Shake It Off