"Clean" by Ryan Adams, Monday, August 23, 2021

 

When you take an aging hipster singer-songwriter who isn't bound to a genre, you get a bunch of weird albums. Ryan Adams is that kind of musician. His breakthrough song, "New York, New York" could place him comfortably with the likes of John Mayer. With a career that included punk, metal, and folk experimentation, he decided in 2015 to cover Taylor Swift's latest record 1989 in its entirety. Most of the album sounds like a 41-year-old trying to sing a 25 year old's tunes. Where Swift shines, especially the three major hits: "Shake It Off," "Blank Space," and "Style," Adams falls flat. However, a few of the duller tracks, like "Out of the Woods" and "Wildest Dreams" as well as the often forgotten tracks like "All You Had to Do Was Stay," "This Love," and of course, today's song, the album closer "Clean," Adams reinvents the tunes in an interesting way. It's as if Adams' pays homage to country Taylor Swift playing her pop tunes acoustically. And maybe, just maybe, listeners could foretaste what Folklore and Evermore might sound like.

AND THE RAIN CAME POURING DOWN. In a quintessential Taylor Swift manner, 1989 chronicles falling in love, breaking up, and a few flings in between. Swift especially eludes to details of her romantic arc with Harry Styles. Meanwhile, in 2015, Ryan Adams' relationship with pop singer/actress Mandy Moore was ending in divorce. In 2019, she and six other women claimed that Adams offered mentorship before pursuing them romantically. Perhaps Adams' recording and releasing a cover of a pop album is parasitic on Swift's fame and musicianship, but with Adams' folk rock cred, with fans ranging from musicians to Stephen King, is a gentle nod to where music is heading. The final track, "Clean" coherently interweaves several metaphors: a drought that is broken by drowning rain (apathy v. tears), "a wine stained shirt," or dress in Taylor's version, and being "ten months sober" (indulgence v. temperance), flowers and butterflies, once a symbol of early love, turn to dust in his/her bedroom (being choked by the past). Water washes clean "any trace" of the love that the two shared. In the moment one realizes that the love is gone it is both relieving and traumatic. Emotions are ambivalent, and the certainty of not being in love has to be greater than the certainty of being in love. It can be decided in a dusty bedroom, but delayed after receiving a new bouquet in a one-off occasion. Still, the clouds gather, and only true love can weather the storm.

GONE WAS ANY TRACE OF YOU. "You're really quiet," Philip said. "You've barely touched your pajeon." "I guess I'm just tired," Allan's gaze broke from the grey ocean, meeting his friend's eyes. "I slept kind of awful last night. I'm trying to ignore my KakaoTalk messages right now, but I feel like it's rude." "Listen, you did what you had to do. You made it clear you're not going to date your adult students. It's unethical." "I'm completely not attracted to her. But I wonder if it's my fate. Like God's joke. You can have anything I place in front of you, but there's a catch." "What's the catch?" "There's always a catch," Allan took a sip of barley tea and looked back out at the sea. "If I meet the most beautiful woman she'll be unattainable. She'll be in one of my classes. She won't take an interest in me. She won't be...spiritual." Philip stabbed a piece of kimchi with his chopsticks, picking it up absently and setting it down again in the bowl. "This year has been challenging. For both of us. But I'm sure that God has a plan, and it might not be what you think. But there's certainly no wrong in taking a minute to breathe after everything that's happened. We certainly can't know all of the answers at once." When they paid the check and headed out, the rain began to fall. The cold December wind lashed out on beach town which had once been thriving four months before. Allan and Philip walked to check into their Airbnb, which overlooked the ocean from the 14th floor. Allan longed to tell Philip what his true thoughts were, for they were the center of his doubt. After achieving the New Year's Resolution, he could pretend it never happened--a secret between him and God. He could repent and wait for God to bestow upon him a gift he didn't deserve: to be normal. And yet, as the waves crashed on the beach and the silence of the afternoon wore on, memories of the night before in the Seoul hotel and snowstorm flooded his mind. Did he end up alone in every scenario. Would even his best friend walk away if he knew the truth? "Oh!" Philip broke Allan's hypnotism. "Newsflash, an AsianAir plan just crashed into the sea."

Read the lyrics on Genius.

Ryan Adams' cover:

Taylor Swift's original: