One of the crowning jewels of Taylor Swift‘s career is “Style” from 1989. A rock star took a stab at the song and made it so much better. Interestingly, he took a song from 1989 and reinterpreted it to sound more like a 1980s song.
Taylor Swift’s ‘Style’ only hints at the pain in this cover
“Style” is perfect. It’s emotionally complex, genre-fluid, and revealing. It features a desperate yearning that makes Swift, the 21st-century goddess of pop music, feel vulnerable and human. “Style” wasn’t as big as other 1989 tracks like “Shake It Off,” “Blank Space,” or “Bad Blood,” but it blew all the other songs from the album out of the water (or out of the woods).
Perhaps that desperation could use a different vocal performance. When Swift sang it, she restrained her voice for much of the track. When Ryan Adams covered “Style” for his album 1989, he howled it. Swift sounded like someone going through difficult emotions. Adams sounds like a rock ‘n’ roll hurricane. There are points where his voice reaches a timbre similar to Bono’s on songs from U2’s The Joshua Tree — which is a high compliment indeed.
Ryan Adams’ ‘Style’ sounds like it could have come from several 1980s rock acts
On top of Adams’ voice, his approach to “Style” works better on an instrumental level. Swift’s 1989 was allegedly inspired by 1980s synth-pop, but it ultimately sounds like it came out in 2014. Adams made his version of the song sound like an actual 1980s hit.
The soundscape is a little U2, a little Bruce Springsteen, and a little Morrissey. Altogether, it’s a blast. On top of that, the lyrical changes are amusing. Adams throws in a shout-out to Sonic Youth and makes one line much more explicit than it was in the original song. If you want to get classic rock fans to appreciate Swift, Adams’ “Style” is a good place to start.
What inspired Ryan Adams’ album of Taylor Swift covers
During a 2015 interview with Grantland, Adams discussed the origin of his 1989. “Over the Christmas holiday, I had a three-week break, and that’s when I originally started to track 1989,” he said. “But I was tracking on a four-track cassette recorder. It was like, ‘Yeah, cool, I’m going to cover it like Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska.’ Then the cassette tape was eaten by the machine, which was unbelievable — after a week of setup, too. I didn’t get discouraged, but in my mind, I went, ‘Well, this is not meant to be in the style; I’ll do it later. I’ll make it an after-tour, fun project.’”
Adams revealed that his record was spontaneous. “Everybody had their ideas and we would learn it on-the-spot together,” he recalled. “Pick the key, come up with an arrangement, try the arrangement — if it felt right, we’d cut the song. Right after we got the take we wanted — which would be between the first and third take — we would right away record two electric guitar overdubs and percussion. It made for a totally cool sound, somewhere between [Springsteen’s] Darkness on the Edge of Town and [The Smiths’] Meat Is Murder.”
Adams showed respect for Swift’s songwriting — and he gave “Style” that extra kick.
