music # 12: Adele - 21 Album Review
There’s a fire burning in my heart, reaching a fever pitch… and unfortunately, it’s not Adele’s second studio release album 21. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the album (so why am I opening this review like a bitch?) but there are several things about it that make it put-down-able (un-plug-able?) for me. The good news is that the album is a jump back to an older, more gravelly and arguably “more authentic” time of music production, namely the sixties that produced legendary voices of yesteryear Dusty Springfield and influenced a similarly anachronistic-songstress Duffy. Bad news, it’s difficult to push her soulful and throaty ballads to a far corner of my mind when the topic comes up, but there have been times when I’ve chosen something over Adele. I fear that the meteoric rise of this album to the top of UK charts (expected), US charts (there’s the power of the radio for you) and Australia (ditto on the radio front) is somewhat of a false indication of the hard work on behalf of the artist and their team. Because of its popularity on the radio, it risks being over-played, over-recognised and over-indulged. Her voice has been criticised for its modulations, lack of imaginative risk-taking with notes and dependence on traditional conventions associated with the ballad.
Admittedly, the majority of this criticism came from young adult males in the immediate vicinity of young adult females squealing about how much they loved ‘Rolling in the Deep’, but that doesn’t make it any less legitimate. I can’t stress how much I actually stood up for Adele before listening to the album for about the eleventh or twelfth time when I realised what it was that was irritating me. Coming back every now and then is still lots of fun, and I definitely enjoy it, but from a different perspective. Adele agreed critics who said her lyrics weren’t as good as her music. I love her lyrics, but as far as 21 goes, only for as well as they fit into the melody… and only for a little while. Her singing is fantastic with all its dips and ringing heights - right up until that fateful listen where you sit on the bus looking at the window and idly think of pressing next track. At that point, you could replicate those modulations and heartfelt back-up whispers in your sleep.
Perhaps my lack of surprise is entirely the fault of over-listening, but it could also be that this is just as much a curse of the fad-a-licious radio habit as it is my iPod. I don’t think she’s ‘corporate’, like a few people are quick to say, but there’s a distinct change between the albums. I may be falling into the ironic and annoying hipster tendency of saying ‘I like her old stuff better’ here, but it’s true that her older lyrics and songs from 19 were more pensive and less manufactured for radio play. ‘Hometown Glory’ and ‘Chasing Pavements’ from 19 set up against the distinctly darker and more powerful ‘Rolling in the Deep’ and ‘Someone Like You’ show the discrepancy between what was the result of a dreamy sixteen-to-nineteen-year-old girl, before a record company picked her up and she suddenly became all wenchy on alcohol and boyfriends and suddenly had romance to write about instead of how gorgeous neighbourhoods can be, irrespective of people’s opinions. Previous critics have said that her lyrics aren’t as deep as they used to be, and a few fans hit back saying that compared to the rest of the shit that’s played on radio, Adele is an absolute darling. This is absolutely true. I’m just comparing Adele to herself. You don’t need me to tell you that she’s better than Ke$ha and her po-po.
What remains, however, is that on 21, there’s a song for every broken-hearted, furious, melancholic, sympathetic and impressionable woman. Men may find it hard to actually relate to the lyrics, and seeing as how her voice is good enough that each word is actually recognisable, they find themselves subjected to a vindictive woman ‘laying your shit bare’. Holy shit man, is his girlfriend now going to quote Adele on her facebook page the next time he dun goofs? Admittedly, there is something raw and aching that I can hear in ‘Rolling in the Deep’, and it’s delightfully positioned next to the groovy ‘Rumor Has It’, but this upbeat and colourful, almost happy version of heartache is in a small minority on the album. ‘Rolling’ is fiery and vengeful, ‘Set Fire to the Rain’ on a lesser extent. ‘Lovesong’ is a cover of The Cure’s original, but with an arrangement originally intended for Barbara Streisand, and is a curious but lovely end to such an angry record. The bulk to the album is sorrowful and full of underlying rage and hurt, which is certainly nice and powerful to listen to the first time, but afterwards it becomes as relevant to me as it does to men. I’d like to think that I’m personally not that vindictive, and while it’s amusing to see that such an on-screen sweetheart like Adele is, it gets old. I suppose if you’re in the mood it would be the perfect soundtrack on the drive over to egg his house, but after I tune out of the music and mechanically start hearing the words as statements, not lyrical constructions, it’s tiring.
Click to viewSo, here are the facts about this album according to the ultimate measure of musical ability, the totally subjective charts. She’s apparently the first person since the Beatles to achieve two hits in both the Official Singles and Official Albums charts. Cool. 21 spent longer than Madonna in the number one slot on the charts (which charts?), which is the longest ever by a female solo artist. She’s also broken the UK record for digital downloads… in an age of iTunes, in her country of origin. I’m not discounting that any of this discounts her ability as an artist, but these are pretty arbitrary ways of defining her talent. Unfortunately the power and raw emotion that comes out through the original acoustic version of ‘Rolling in the Deep’ can’t be described in this world as being comparable to Madonna (and whatever the hell her voice sounds like on a good day) or the Beatles (who are guys. Awesome guys.). So they use charts and figures and money, none of which actually describe her talent or the reception of her work.
Adele and 21 have flaws. The subject matter is that of a post-break-up wounded woman with a hell of a set of lungs, a good distance from her coming-of-age album 19. She may have become more ‘mainstream’ or ‘corporate’ by making her songs marketable by singing in a way radio audiences appreciate. She may have vocal quirks that not everyone (including myself, at times) appreciates, but that’s okay. Her singing voice is infinitely better than her speaking voice, and is a really, really nice change from the likes of Lily Allen, Kate Nash and Amy Winehouse who seem to sing slaw-jawed and dribbling while Adele draws herself up to her greatest height and belts out We could have had it all. Sometimes I have to listen to something else for a little while before I come back to her, and sometimes I have to focus on the music rather than the lyrics, and the lyrics rather than the words, but that’s okay. I like the power and the energy in the songs that has me bouncing in my seat at the traffic lights, and playfully over-mouthing her lyrics at people who don’t like her. I like 21.
Adele - Hometown Glory (Live) from 19
• Adele’s Official Website
• Adele’s YouTube channel (UK only)
• velocitiesinmusic good review of the album, YouTube
• Adele in Rolling Stone (and some links to other interviews)