Adele's Yearning And Loss Are Expressed With Mixed Results On 25!

The Good: Amazing vocals, Moments of musical accompaniment
The Bad: Short, Some particularly stale rhymes, Lack of distinctive, memorable tunes.
The Basics: 25 is the epitome of ambitious average albums where Adele's voice is used as a medium for mediocre lyrics and songs that lack the instant impact and memorability of 21.


After the success of Adele's album 21 (reviewed here!), Adele had a near-impossible task that very few artists are ever stuck with. With the dramatic success of 21, Adele faced the classic artist's dilemma of creating a follow-up album that either went in a new direction - potentially alienating her massive new fanbase - or simply giving listeners "more of the same," which had the potential of making listeners believe that she truly had given everything to her prior album. 25 seems to attempt to find its own balance - the vocals are exactly what one might expect from Adele, the instrumental accompaniment is supportive but none of the songs are particularly catchy - with mixed results; the writing does not seem nearly as sophisticated as on 21.

25 is, objectively, probably the best listeners could have expected of new music from Adele, especially given that the album is essentially a theme album. 25 is an album featuring songs of sadness, longing and loss and Adele delivers them well. In fact, the listener is treated right off the bat to "Hello," which may well be the best stalker song since "Every Breath You Take." But 25 pretty rapidly falls into indistinct melodies, many of which are overproduced, that use Adele's clear, powerful voice to deliver some truly cringeworthy lyrics.

With eleven songs, clocking out at 48:25, 25 appears to be the album Adele intended to make. Adele co-wrote all of the songs and provides lead vocals on each track. As well, she plays percussion instruments on three songs; the only major credit she does not appear to get on 25 is producing and each track seems to have a different producer, which might be one of the reasons the album (outside thematically) does not seem to come together.

The sound of 25 is piano and orchestra-driven. While the instrumental accompaniment includes synths and the occasional guitar, the overall tempo of 25 is more slow than it is poppy. More than that, none of the songs truly have memorable tunes. I am convinced that outside "Hello," there is not a single song from 25 I could hear a muzak version of again (even tomorrow) and recognize it from the album I just listened to on heavy replay.

Vocally, Adele is, predictably, amazing on 25. Adele's voice has amazing range and she has pretty incredible lung capacity. So, while she holds notes for a long time and articulates her lines over multiple registers, listeners start 25 with the expectations set high based on Adele's known abilities. She meets those expectations, but there are no pleasant vocal surprises on 25. On "River Lea," Adele's vocals seem much more produced than any of her other tracks, which is unfortunate given the amazing quality of her natural voice.

Lyrically, 25 is very much consumed with expressing loss and longing. Songs like "Water Under The Bridge" express a level of angst that is pretty universal. When Adele sings "It's so cold out here in your wilderness / I want you to be my keeper / But not if you are so reckless / If you're gonna let me down, let me down gently / Don't pretend that you don't want me /Our love ain't water under the bridge" ("Water Under The Bridge"), it is hard not to empathize with her sentiments.

Much of 25 seems preoccupied with roads not taken and the loss of potential, which is an interesting - or compelling, at least - subject for an album. And Adele and her co-writers have a lot to say about the subject. The album is not wholly depressing, though. With lines like "No river is too wide or too deep for me to swim to you / Come whatever, I'll be the shelter that won't let the rain come through / Your love, it is my truth / And I will always love you" ("Remedy") Adele offers love as a solution to so many of the worst things one might experience!

All that said, the writing on 25 is not the best to come out of anyone writing music over the last twenty years ago. The problem with Adele's amazing vocals is that the listener can hear each and every word perfectly. That means they can hear rhymes like "I want every single piece of you / I want your heaven and your oceans too . . .Then kiss me back to life to see / Your body standing over me" ("I Miss You"). Between that and the repetitive quality of some of the songs, there are some seriously lazy writing attempts on 25.

Ultimately, 25 is not a bad album; it has its moments, its highs and lows and it averages out. It is neither as extraordinary as 21 or as terrible as it could have been; the result is an album that feels like auditory coasting.

The best songs are "When We Were Young" and "Remedy," most of the rest of the album would rate as very average, underwhelming, songs.

For other music by powerful vocalists, please check out my reviews of:
Little Secret - Nikki Yanofsky
The Way It Feels - Heather Nova
Shadows - Lilly Wood And The Prick

5/10

For other music reviews, please check out my Music Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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A Very Average Debut, 19 By Adele!

The Good: Great voice, Some of the lyrics
The Bad: Duration, Repetition(!)
The Basics: 19 gave the world the music of Adele, but it's not an exceptional debut.


As I and the rest of the music-enthusiastic world eagerly await the release of the new Adele album 25, I thought it would behoove me to go back and listen to her debut, 19. I had the opportunity to get in on the ground floor with the music of Adele as I was traveling when 19 was struggling to find its audience and I asked a worker at a Barnes & Noble what they would recommend as I wanted a new album while I was on the road. They recommended 19 and I listened to a track or two and it just did not grab me. It took until my wife fell in love with Adele's music from 21 (reviewed here!) before I came back to Adele. I've spent the last day listening to 19 on pretty high rotation and my verdict is that Adele got lucky with getting her breakout album, 21.

19 is painfully repetitive, but features Adele's trademark impressive vocal range. It has some decent lyrics, but the instrumental accompaniment is unimpressive and lacks a hook. Adele's lone cover song, her version of "Make You Feel My Love," does not reinvent it in any interesting way to make it her own, but there are hints at her potential in the album.

With a dozen tracks clocking out at 43:41, 19 is very much the vision of Adele. Adele wrote six of the tracks, co-wrote five and has only one cover song on the debut album. She also played various guitars on four of the songs, celesta on one song and even the cowbell. Naturally, Adele provided the lead vocals for every song; the only creative credit she does not have any part of on 19 is the production.

In many ways, musically 19 is a banal light pop-rock album. The songs lack a strong hook and most are driven by guitar and piano, but three hours after the last time I listened to 19, none of the original songs are memorable. After eight listenings to the album over the last day, the fact that I don't feel I could recall a single tune from 19 (save the cover of "Make You Feel My Love," which I know from other musical artists and performers) is a severe detriment to my opinion of it. The music is, in many ways, indistinct.

What is distinct are the vocals of Adele. Adele sings powerfully and articulately. She is able to leap from dusky and lower registers to long, held notes in the soprano register on 19. She makes her vocals into the album's primary instrument and it is amazing.

Moreover, even on 19 Adele has something she wanted to say and she says it well. As one might expect from the very emotive Adele from their experiences with her radio-played songs off 21, on 19 Adele sings about relationships a lot. On "First Love," Adele sings about the dissolution of a young relationship and she executes it articulately with lines like "Forgive me first love, but I'm tired. / I need to get away to feel again. / Try to understand why, / Don't get so close to change my mind. / Please wipe that look out of your eyes, / It's bribing me to doubt myself; / Simply, it's tiring." ("First Love").

Furthermore, Adele wrote with quite a bit of angst on 19. When she sings "Why is it every time I think I've tried my hardest / It turns out it ain't enough? / You're still not mentioning love / What am I supposed to do to make you want me properly? / I'm taking these chances and getting nowhere / And though I'm trying my hardest you go back to her" ("Best For Last"), it is hard not to feel as tortured as the musical protagonist!

But, one of the big problems with 19 is that Adele is a young writer on the album. As a result, some of the songs are very short and to get them up to a reasonable length, the songs have so much repetition that they become incredibly tired. As well, rhymes like "I thought I knew myself, somehow you know me more / I've never known this, never before / You're the first to make out whenever we argue / I don't know who I'd be if I didn't know you / You're so provocative, I'm so conservative" ("My Same") are not as sophisticated as some of her others.

Ultimately, 19 is a pretty indistinct album that fails to sell the full range of Adele's talents. The best track on the album is probably "Could Shoulder," the low point is the very repetitive "Right As Rain."

For other women with powerful voices and great albums, please check out:
The Way If Feels - Heather Nova
Shine On - Sarah McLachlan
Emerald - Dar Williams

5/10

For other music reviews, please visit my Music Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Music To Commemorate Every One Of My Ex's: 21 By Adele Is Wonderful!

The Good: Great voice, Decent music, Good writing, Thematic unity
The Bad: Short, Voice gets a little monotonous upon multiple listens.
The Basics: 21 is the cure to today's mundane dance and hip hop-heavy Top 40, making Adele one of the few artists I am currently listening to!


It has been so long since I've had the opportunity to review a new c.d. for someone who is actually finding success at the time I have access to their album. In fact, the last one might have been Burn The World Down by We Are The Fallen (reviewed here!) and since my wife picked up that album, I have not purchased and new new music. But for Easter, I picked her up 21 which she wanted based on the strength of the single "Rolling In The Deep." Now, she is hooked and I am finding I enjoy the album, though it is hardly perfect.

My wife got me to get her 21 by showing me the video for "Rolling In The Deep" and wowing me with the fact that she had been impressed by a female musical artist. The closest experience I had with Adele before seeing the "Rolling In The Deep" video was having her album 18 recommended to me a few years back when I was looking for someone new to get into. I was not impressed with whatever tracks the shop I asked at put on, so it took me a few years to get to this party. Now that I am there, I have to say I am impressed. 21 leaves me with about the same emotional resonance I had when I first heard Fiona Apple's album Tidal (reviewed here!). Unfortunately for Adele, 21 does not seem to replay quite as well as Tidal. But for those who love Apple and the niche she fills, Adele seems to fit well and in the absence of new material from the familiar, I am happy to support the new.

With only eleven tracks clocking out at 48:04, the biggest strike against 21 is that it is short. Adele is the dominant artist on the album, having co-written each of the songs, save "Lovesong" and performing the vocals on all of the songs. While Adele is not credited with playing any of the instruments, she did co-produce "Someone Like You." It seems like this is largely the musical vision Adele wanted to release, though I always like seeing more creative control asserted from young talent.

And Adele has the talent. 21 is a bodyblow of forceful and depressing music, most of which is obsessed with loss or the anguish that comes from betrayal and abandonment. Songs like "Turning Tables" and "Don't You Remember" have a strong sense of longing, while "Set Fire To The Rain" has an anger that boils throughout the piece. 21 is thematically unified by betrayal, anger and loss in a way that could be oppressive if it were not so well-presented. Adele has a great ear for mixing it up and a powerful voice to deliver her message.

Adele's sound on 21 varies from the sassy jazzy quality of a tell-off ("Rumor Has It") to the murky soul sound that has made "Rolling In The Deep" a radio staple. She has ballads in "Don't You Remember" and "Turning Tables" while "He Won't Go" sounds like a Carole King pop number. Musically, 21 continually mixes it up so stylistically, it is not one type music. This is a strength which plays well to the ear and, in contrast to something like the one-woman-and-a-piano sound that plagued Tidal's replayability, allows 21 to remain constantly stimulating, even over many listens. Going from the pop of "He Won't Go" to the almost Gospel sound of "Take It All," for example, is inspired and helps the album hold together more than just in its themes.

Which brings us to the other unifying element, which works as a cement and to the detriment of 21: Adele's vocals. While the instrumental accompaniment for Adele is varied among many different genres, Adele's vocals are strangely monolithic. Adele has a great voice, dominating the alto and lower ranges to embody a smoky sound perfectly. But she presents each track with a similar, earnest quality that does not stimulate the ear quite as well as her instrumental accompaniment does. Adele sounds good, she has great lung capacity, but her vocals sound very similar track to track in a way that does lessen the replayability of the album. Fortunately, she sings each and every line clearly.

I suspect the reason she sings so clearly is because Adele wants her listeners to hear what she has to say. And she does have something to say, though most of it is anguished and depressing. She sings expertly of betrayal when she sings "I can't keep up with your turning tables / Under your thumb I can't breathe / So, I won't let you close enough to hurt me / No, I won't rescue you to just desert me / I can't give you the heart you think you gave me / It's time to say goodbye to turning tables" ('Turning Tables"). Adele has a great sense of diction and poetry throughout her songs and songs like "Turning Tables" capture the emotions she wants to convey incredibly well. On "Set Fire To The Rain," she has such vivid imagery that makes Adele a master even on this, her sophomore album.

Other songs have more of a sense of being a musical storysong. The longing on "Don't You Remember," for example, is expressed with more of a backstory. When she sings "You left with no goodbye, not a single word was said / No final kiss to seal any seams / I had no idea of the state we were in / I know I have a fickle heart and bitterness / And a wandering eye, and a heaviness in my head / But don't you remember? / Don't you remember? / The reason you loved me before / Baby, please remember me once more" ("Don't You Remember"), Adele paints a very vivid picture. Anyone who has felt righteous anger over loss and longed for a return to the familiar can relate given how she tells the musical story.

But not all of the poetry is incredible. Adele falls into some pretty typical rhyme schemes on one or two of the tracks. There is an unsurprising quality to the lines "I'll find someone like you / I wish nothing but the best for you too" ("Someone Like You"), though these are certainly the exceptions to the rule.

My wife and I are thoroughly enjoying 21, despite the fact that the album is largely depressing. I attribute that mostly to the fact that this is powerful music for those who have been hurt in the past. Adele captures the powerful emotions and expresses them well, which is something we haven't heard from anyone new in a long time. So I am happy to endorse 21 and for the few people who might not have picked up the album yet (it was number one for a few weeks there!), what are you waiting for?! Adele is not a one-hit wonder and 21 has a lot more to offer than just the lead-track.

The best song is "Turning Tables," the low point is the unmemorable "One And Only."

For other women with powerful voices and great albums, please check out:
Oyster - Heather Nova
Laws Of Illusion - Sarah McLachlan
@#%&*! Smilers - Aimee Mann

8/10

For other music reviews, please visit my index page on the subject by clicking here!

© 2011 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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