It is only February but I am predicting that Adele’s new album “21″ will be nominated for a Grammy for Album of the Year and may win. Now I say this without knowing what is coming down the road but this is album is a classic. It has been a long, long, long time since I heard an album that drips with honesty, maturity, emotion and a purity of voice. When I first heard Adele debut her lead single Rolling in the Deep on the The Ellen Degeneres Show two months ago, I was blown away. I became excited about what was to come and she did not disappoint.
Buy: Rolling In the Deep – Single
In a time where commercial pop is all about autotune, mainstream production, image and marketing along comes 22 year old Adele Adkins, known professionally as Adele. She exploded upon the scene 2 years ago with her debut album 19 and along the way picked up two Grammy’s. Knowing the importance of having a solid sophmore album, she joined veteran producer Rick Ruben for second effort. Together they layered the album with Adele’s newly acquired appreciation of American country, jazz and blues music. Then they lyrically mined the implosion of her latest failed relationship to sing the truth of her experience. Oh, what a story they have told.
I say with The Perspiration Journal “every bead of sweat tells a story” well this is a perspiration journal put to music. Adele’s voice scales to new heights. On songs like Rolling in the Deep, she digs in her heels and sings with a vengeance and a maturity beyond her years. Then a song like One and Only, my favorite, comes on and that anger has been replaced with vulnerability and hope. Listen to her stripped down version of The Cure’s Lovesong and imagine it was not written specifically for her.
The critics are weighing in and “21″ is being hailed as “transcendent” “a masterpiece” ”classic” “amazing”. This is not inaccurate. The new masterwork is a bestseller in Europe and Adele has tied the Beatle’s record this week for having two singles in the Top 5 on the British charts. In addition, both of albums of her albums, 19 and 21, are in Top 5 Albums, as well. She also scored her first number 1 with the song, Someone Like You.
You can only write what you know and this young woman knows the complexity of living Life with abandon and the price you pay when you are abandoned after you have made yourself the most vulnerable. In lesser skilled hands, any number of pop divas today would over-sing, overproduce, become overly sentimental and beat the listener over the head with everything in their musical arsenal. You don’t need to be twenty-one to buy “21″ but I think you may need to be over twenty-one to truly appreciate it. There are no dishonest vocal pyrotechnics, silly lyrics and soaring instruments on display. It is imminently listenable and where it is not perfect, it exposes the flaws we all have.
Buy: 21 – Adele
