I talked about this on my Facebook page.
I’m a fan of Taylor Swift. I know I’m not her intended audience, but I’m a fan of a well crafted song and she crafts her music very well.
Now Ryan Adams is another matter. I’m a big fan of his work. I’ve followed his music since the days of Whiskeytown. I would pretty much buy anything he puts out and so far I think I have.
Ryan Adams decided to re-do Taylor Swift’s latest album 1989 in what I think I read in one interview as if the Smiths were recording it. He talked about how he first tried a couple songs on the same type of recording device that Bruce Springsteen used to record Nebraska on. (Which I think has lead a lot of people commenting that Ryan re-did the album in the style of Springsteen’s Nebraska). While Taylor’s album is a bright, mostly cheerful pop album (and nothing wrong with that and very enjoyable as such) Ryan’s take on the songs give them a different, more somber meaning. His version of Shake It Off has become one of my favorites.
It’s really amazing listening to the two albums after I combined them on a playlist with Taylor’s song first followed by Ryan’s version and than burned it all to a CD. This has become my listening material in the car for the last few days.