ifjanetranit reblogged
Ryan Adams ‘1989′
Today, Ryan Adams released his full album cover of Taylor Swift’s ‘1989.’ I have been a fan of Ryan Adams since Heartbreaker, which was one of the first three albums I bought on CD and still remains amongst my favorite albums of all time. While I do know who Taylor Swift is (though in your defense, electradaddy, I was clueless about Taylor Lautner), I cannot say I have ever really been “hooked” by her music (at least in the same way as my current recent gold pop standards: “Run Away With Me” or “Teenage Dream”). But hooked or not, all credit to taylorswift, she knows how to craft some phenomenal pop. And from her music, to her videos, shows, presence, and persona is probably only rivaled on that scale by Beyonce.
I am not always crazy about covers, and there are all sorts of ways that Ryan Adams could have missed on this full album set. Not only is translating Top 40 pop out of its original context challenging, but a full album of covers is a very different animal than a single song. I am curious to see what ‘1989′ fans think of this set of covers, Taylor Swift herself seems to be a big fan, but I personally found (most) of these to be pretty great. If you like either Ryan Adams or Taylor Swift this is probably worth a listen through.
“Blank Space”
“All You Had to Do Was Stay”
“Shake It Off”
“Bad Blood”
I like Ryan Adams, and I have enjoyed several of his albums. I also like Taylor Swift and have enjoyed many of her singles. She has rebuffed Spotify, so I haven’t listened to all of her albums.
I have listened to Ryan’s “1989″ several times in the last 24 hours (thanks Spotify!). At first I wasn’t that impressed. I liked “Welcome to New York” a lot, but felt it went downhill from there. But after multiple listens I am pretty sold. I believe I had to “shake off” the originals.
I approve.
ifjanetranit reblogged
Chambaland - “Out of the Pride Lands” (Taylor Swift vs. The Lion King)
This is from my new favorite blog. I'm a sucker for a good mashup.
I like the new Taylor Swift song "Out of the Woods," and I like that her whole new album is a love letter to the 80's. Scott thinks "Out of the Woods" sounds too much like Enya or T'Pau, but I say that's a good thing.
In fact, back in the 80's my brother once asked if T'Pau's "Heart and Soul" was two songs playing at once, so T'Pau was really ahead of its time.
Anyhow, "Out of the Woods" has me dancing around the house like a 13-year-old girl, so I think whatever Taylor did worked.
I read a book, yo! I Wear the Black Hat by Chuck Klosterman is a fun non-fiction read. I like Klosterman. He's good at making cultural analysis interesting, accessible and funny. His thesis for his latest work is essentially the villain is the person who knows the most but cares the least. And then he goes about explaining stuff like why we love to hate Linda Tripp, Julian Assange, and Fred Durst. I've read most of Klosterman's other books, and I check out his Grantland columns. Sometimes he goes on and on too much for my tastes, but that's why Evelyn Wood made a fortune advocating skimming. It works. I powered through this baby in a couple of train rides. It's an easy enjoyable read that makes for great conversation starters at cocktail parties and during long elevator rides. "Hey, how come Taylor Swift gets hammered for self-absorption and nostalgic over-sharing, which are two qualities singer-songwriters are SUPPOSED to possess? Discuss." I'm a great stranger to meet in an elevator.