Ryan Adams - 1989

Ryan Adams recasts Taylor Swift's pop smash 1989 with a Springsteen-esque edge

Perhaps the U.K.'s The Telegraph says it best: ""By re-recording the whole of Taylor Swift's 1989, the maverick alt-country star has turned a world-beating chart smash album into a tender masterpiece of bruised Americana, in the process emphasising the perfect songcraft and exposing the dark heart of emotion beating beneath Swift's gleaming surfaces."

Produced by Adams, the first news of this reinterpretation of 1989 was revealed last month on the Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter's Instagram (misterryanadams) with the post 'Taylor Swift 1989 full album cover night 1. As played by the Smiths.' Adams unearths new emotional riches, mostly sad ones, from his source material. And his 1989 transcends mere tribute.

"I thought, 'Let me record 1989 like it was Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska,'" says singer-songwriter of the novelty-free endeavor.

Adams was, in his words, "a little lost" in Christmas 2014. He'd wrapped up one leg of a tour supporting his self-titled album, and he and his wife, Mandy Moore, had just separated. Chilling out on his tour bus, Adams was transfixed listening to Swift's 1989. "I was listening to that record and thinking, 'I hear more.'"

With Swift herself chiming in affirmatively via Twitter when she heard the news of her friend Adams' proposed remake of 1989 ("Is this true????" she tweeted. "I WILL PASS OUT"), what began as a killing-time lark has turned into one of the year's most critically lauded albums: Adams' own 1989. Some argue that reviewers' praise has verged on the condescending — Uproxx wrote that "This project shows what a strong songwriter Swift is," while the man-splainy New Yorker wrote: "These songs, rearranged by Adams, might sound to some ears more authentic, raw or genuine — suddenly more his than hers."

Both albums are good, and listeners will find pleasure in each version. Ryan Adams has doubtless created a masterwork; it's Taylor Swift as you never imagined.