2020 has seen artists surprising fans with multiple releases, surprise album drops and intimate and folk filled records that might not have normally gained our attention. Taylor Swift, Ryan Adams, Ane Brun and Paul McCartney are four artists who have recently captured our attention.

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Ryan Adams – Wednesdays

Ryan Adams announced he’d release three albums in 2019, but allegations of sexually inappropriate behaviour saw the plans shelved.

The former lead singer of country band Whiskeytown has always been a prolific artist. Since putting out his first solo album in 2000 he’d released 16 records by 2017, plus many live albums, and b-side collections. He’d also produced albums for other artists including Willie Nelson, Starcrawler and contributed to Australian artist Krista Polvere’s album.

Adams plans for 2019 would have seen his 17th, 18th and 19th records hit the shelves. It’s not the first time he’s released multiple albums in a single year, in 2015 he put out Cold Roses and Jacksonville Nights with backing band The Cardinals and solo effort 29. While Adams likes to get his songs in front of fans, fans have commented that sometimes his quality drops when too much is released too quickly.

One of the oddest, but most charming, records Adams has put out is 1989, where he didn’t just cover a Taylor Swift tune, he made his own version of her entire album. Adams said he’d become fascinated by Swift’s album during his divorce from fellow musician Mandy Moore.

In 2019 Adams said he’d be releasing Big Colors, followed by Wednesdays, and then another untitled record. When the New York Times published a story alleging Adams had been emotionally abusive to Moore, and sexually inappropriate with other women, including musician Phoebe Bridgers with whom he had also had a relationship, and had engaged in sexually charged conversations with an underage fan – the albums disappeared from the release schedule.

Adams denied the accusations, but tours and concerts were cancelled, and his career came to a grinding halt. After five months of silence, he posted a song online, it was called I’m Sorry and I Love You. 

The tune is the opening track on Wednesdays which had a surprise release last Friday, the same day that Taylor Swift dropped her second unexpected album. Wednesdays finds Adams in fine form, songs which are slow and tender, filled with the tinges of country that have featured in his most loved work.

The opening track is a powerful statement, a song asking a lost lover for forgiveness, a plea of “I’m sorry, and I love you.”, and an invitation to wipe out the lies and the truth and look beyond the question marks. The self-reflection continues on Who’s Going to Love Me Now, If Not You which is filled with plucked guitars and mellow strings in the background.

Whether these songs, that were recorded prior to his public shaming, but after his split from Moore, are about Adams behaviour is at this stage open to the interpretation of the listener, but there’s a lot that can be read into the lyrics. On Poison & Pain Adams sings about his demons “alcohol and freedom” before singing about a king without a queen, and a king without a kingdom.

We’re seven tracks into the eleven song collection before Adams picks up the pace on Birmingham but this track is the only upbeat number. He returns to being forlorn and apologetic So, Anyways, a song filled with harmonica, slide guitar and lyrics once again about lost love and beginning for forgiveness.

Adams addressed the accusations made against him in a letter published in The Daily Mail. 

“There are no words to express how bad I feel about the ways I’ve mistreated people throughout my life and career.

“All I can say is that I’m sorry. It’s that simple. This period of isolation and reflection made me realize that I needed to make significant changes in my life.” Adams said back in July.

“I’ve gotten past the point where I would be apologizing just for the sake of being let off the hook and I know full well that any apology from me probably won’t be accepted by those I’ve hurt.

“I get that and I also understand that there’s no going back.” Adams wrote.

Sounding earnest on So, Anyway he sings about love being a maze “that only one of us was meant to escape” and being “lost before I felt your love, so anyway”. The album closer with another ode to lost love, Dreaming You Backwards with references to letting go, saying goodbyes, sunrises and wishing that the other person will find love again. It’s a song that comes to a sudden and poignant end, it seems like it’s all going along normally, then it suddenly ends. Suddenly it’s over, gone and not coming back.

Wednesdays sees Ryan Adams delivering an album that is as good as any of the favourites fans have from earlier in his career. If they’re ready to forgive him and move on. Only time will tell.

Taylor Swift – Evermore

Evermore is the second surprise album from Swift in 2020, who took the opportunity of lockdown to write a large number of songs with collaborators including Arron Dessner from The National and Justin Vernon of Bon Iver.

The first half of these tunes appeared on Folklore, a pop folk album that delighted critics and fans. Now Swift unveils just how rich a stream of creativity she and her comrades tapped into with an album featuring another 15 interesting and engaging stories – again all with titles in lower case.

Teaming up with girl-band Haim for one of the album’s most country tunes no body no crime tells the tale of a man suspected of murdering his wife after she confides with friends that she though he might be unfaithful, but most of what Swift offers here is in the same vein of folklore. If you fell in love with that record, this album is simply a double helping, if you love Swift’s catchy pop numbers – your probably waiting for her next record.

Ane Brun – After The Great Storm and How Beauty Holds The Hand Of Sorrow

Swift is not alone in releasing multiple records, Norwegian singer Ane Brun put out two records within a few weeks of each other. First up was After The Great Storm which was released at the end of October.

Brun hasn’t made any original music for a few years, a covers album was well received by fans, but the singer has explained that the death of her father left her not wanting to write music for a considerable time. Then a period of time locked away in a cabin saw her write a number of new tunes, enough for multiple records.

Her album is a mesmerising combination of electronic sounds, strings and Brun’s folk flavoured vocals. It’s the kind of music that fans of recent records of Alison Moyet, Massive Attack and Portishead will love, gloomy, swooning, subtle and slightly foreboding.

Unlike Swift’s two albums where the tracks could be interchangeable, Brun’s second record is distinctly different. How Beauty Holds The Hand Of Sorrow was released just a month after After The Great Storm, but it is a much quieter, sorrowful and fragile sounding collection of songs.

On her second record the piano is front and centre on many of the tracks including Lose My Way a duet with American composer Dustin O’Halloran. There’s much less electronic experimentation and the songs are presented in a much simpler format. There all stunningly beautiful. One song, Don’t Run and Hide, appears on both albums and it’s intriguing to listen to two radically different takes on the song.  

Paul McCartney – McCartney III

Paul McCartney’s latest album is also a record conceived and recorded during the lockdown period of 2020. The third part of a trilogy that has spanned his entire solo career. The first part of the trilogy was his first solo release in 1970 as The Beatles came to a grinding halt.

The lo-fi record was not a critical or commercial success upon it’s release but some of the songs on it have stood the test of time, and it’s been cited as an inspiration by many musicians. McCartney spent the 1970’s with his band Wings and McCartney II came at the start of the 1980s punctuated by another band breakup. This time the home-recorded album featured a lot of synthesizers and studio experimentation and spawned the hit Coming Up. 

Now having skipped a few decades McCartney presents the third installment of his home recordings. It opens up with the largely acoustic Long Tailed Winter Bird, which begins a journey through a series of easy going songs that vary is style.

Find My Way is catchy and filled with muffled guitars and a 70’s vibe. Pretty Boys is filled with strumming guitars while things get more melodramatic on Women and Wives. Deep Deep Feeling is a more adventurous tune that has a big sound that conjures up images of open plains and deep canyons. Slidin’ is grungy guitar rock, while The Kiss of Venus takes an acoustic turn.

One of the most memorable tunes on the album is Seize the Day, which is reminiscent of many of McCartney hits of the past, a combination of nostalgia in both the sound and the lyrics. On Deep Down McCartney delivers a bluesy tune with a great horn rift. The album closes with Winter Bird / When the Winter Comes which echoes the opening tune before launching into a charming tune about fixing fences and planting vegetables which taps into the aesthetic of Beatrix Potter, The Wind in the Willows and all things British and twee.

It’s impossible to listen to McCartney without wondering if one of these new tunes is going to join the many tunes he’s written that are regarded as classics. Is there anything even as good as lesser known hits like Calico Skies, Sing the Changes, No More Lonely Nights, Press or My Brave Face? Maybe not, but on his 18th solo record McCartney doesn’t really need to prove anything and this collection of songs has some great moments.      

Graeme Watson

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