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Father John Misty Reinterprets "Blank Space" & "WELCOME TO NEW YORK" In The Style of The Velvet Underground (Ryan Adams' "1989")




"My interpretation [of "Blank Space"] from the classic Ryan Adams album "1989,"' former Fleet Foxes drummer and semi-ironic, self-loathing Indie-Pop superstar Josh Tillman aka @fatherjohnmisty Tweeted Monday evening on the heels of Ryan Adams' just-released Taylor Swift 1989 covers album. Tillman was seemingly riffing on Adams' 1989 re-imagined in the style of Bruce Springsteen's Darkness On The Edge of Town meets The Smiths' Meat Is Murder, sloppily crooning Swift's chart-topping "Blank Space" and "Welcome to New York" in the style of Velvet Underground frontman Lou Reed. "In the studio working on a [song-for-song] reinterpretation of Ryan Adams "1989," gonna be great! Ryan's amazing," Father John Misty sarcastically wrote in a since-deleted "so psyched"-hashtagged Tweet. While Tillman's rendition of "Blank Space" is, to say the very least, a little hard to digest, his take on Ryan Adams' reinterpreted Taylor Swift cover, "Welcome to New York" is in fact, a beautifully-executed Rolling Stones "Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)"-reminiscent version. However, in Father John Misty's defense, Ryan Adams somehow, rather ridiculously managed to jam-pack sonic threads of Americana, "Punky Power-Pop," 1980's U2, Jawbreaker, Sonic Youth, Springsteen, and Eddie & The Cruisers throughout his Taylor Swift covers album!? It's unclear as to whether or not Tillman recorded a full-album cover of Ryan Adams' Taylor Swift covers collection... or if he just got drunk and recorded a couple of late-night, tongue-in-cheek Indie-Pop gems whilst f*cking around in his home-studio over the weekend; I guess only time will tell, if we'll ever see Father John Misty's "Ryan Adams 1989" covers album manifested and released into "the real world," as well as Ryan Adams' modern-day classic, 1989 pressed up onto CD-LP formats.