1989 is the fifteenth studio album by American singer-songwriter Ryan Adams, released digitally through his own PAX AM record label on September 21, 2015. The album is a track-by-track cover of American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift's album of the same name.[1] It debuted at number 7 on the US Billboard 200 chart, one position ahead of Swift's own 1989, which was in its 48th week on the chart.[2]

Background

Adams first became interested in Taylor Swift's album while coping with the collapse of his marriage to Mandy Moore.[3] On what attracted him about Swift's album, Adams stated "There's just a joy to 1989,"[3] describing the album as "its own alternate universe".[3] Adams initially described the album as being in the style of the Smiths.[4] When recording the album, Adams said he found a sound somewhere between Bruce Springsteen's Darkness on the Edge of Town and The Smiths' Meat Is Murder.[5]

Taylor Swift's response

On the day that Adams announced the project, Swift responded enthusiastically from her Twitter account, writing, "Cool I'm not gonna be able to sleep tonight or ever again and I'm going to celebrate today every year as a holiday."[6]

Two weeks later, an official statement was released via Entertainment Weekly, whereupon Swift expressed further excitement and anticipation:

"Ryan Adams is one of the artists who shaped my songwriting. My favorite part of his style of creating music is his ability to bleed aching vulnerability into it, and that's what he's done with his cover project of my album 1989. When I first heard that Ryan was going to be covering my entire album, I couldn't believe it. It's such an honor that he would want to take my stories and lyrics and give them a new life. He's gotten some of the best musicians together to record this album and if the clips he's released are any indication, this is going to be something really special."

— Taylor Swift, August 20, 2015[7]

On September 21, a day after the album's release, Adams was on Zane Lowe's Beats 1 radio show when Swift made a surprise appearance. Swift praised Adams' work, and described the ways in which his interpretation of the songs differed from her own. She stated that they were "not cover songs" but rather "reimaginings of my songs, and you can tell that he was in a very different place emotionally when he put his spin on them than I was when I wrote them. There's this beautiful aching sadness and longing in this album that doesn't exist in the original."[8] In the same interview, Swift also admitted that, after spending time listening to an advance copy of Adams' album, she had picked up some of Adams' melodies when performing her songs on tour.[8]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic69/100[9]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[10]
American Songwriter[11]
The A.V. ClubA−[12]
The Boston GlobePositive[13]
Entertainment WeeklyA−[14]
Los Angeles TimesPositive[15]
Pitchfork4/10[16]
Slant Magazine