For me Adele is one of the best up and coming artists of our generation. Her voice is so sophisticated and trained it is hard to believe she put out her first album at the age of 19. I remember hearing Chasing Pavements for the first time on the radio and I was automatically hooked in. It was unlike anything else I was hearing on the radio at the time, and I quickly went out and picked up the album. This says a lot since I buy maybe three or four albums a year. I remember my first go through of the album definitely didn’t catch my attention as much as subsequent listens. The more I listen to it the more I find to love about it.
Adele was discovered through a few tracks that a friend had posted on their Myspace page. Quickly a record label heard that unique tone in her voice and scooped her up. Adele quickly became a sensation in her homeland of the UK. It wasn’t until her performance on Saturday Night Live that she became well known in the U.S. After her performance her album topped the I tunes charts, and she jumped up 35 spaces from the previous week on the Billboard top 200 list. As her album 19 was being released Adele seemed to be fighting some demons. Even at the young age of 19 she was in a bad relationship, which led to her having a drinking problem. Thankfully she got out of the relationship and ended her drinking problem. She is now about to release her second album, which is titled “21.” I think I see a trend in her album titles. It is easy to compare Adele to the likes of Amy Winehouse, but I feel that Adele’s voice has a much better tone and more of a longevity factor to it.
My favorite tracks are “Best for Last,” “Chasing Pavements,” “Cold Shoulder,” “Make you feel my Love,” and “Hometown Glory.”
I also posted the video to of her new song “Rolling in the Deep,” off her new album which will be released February 22. This song is spectacular if you ask me, so I hope you guys all give it a listen!
Apparently I didn’t get the memo about picking British female vocalists for this round. Not that I’m complaining, because these last two weeks have been great exposure to two very different artists. I remember watching Saturday Night Live, mostly to watch Adele perform, because I was blown away by the song “Chasing Pavements”. Her voice is so seductive and powerful; I don’t have a clue why I’ve never sat down and listened to this album until this week.
ReplyDeleteUnlike Lily Allen, Adele’s voice is the main attraction throughout every song. “Daydreamer” only needs slight acoustic accompaniment and some whimsical lyrics to grab me and hold me. The way she sings the word “doorsteps” reminds me of Bjork and makes me fall in love with her even more. The way she lets herself become vulnerable to the advances of a young suitor in “Best For Last” gives an interesting perspective from the woman’s side in the interplay between the sexes. “Crazy For You” shows that this youngster can do a country ballad with the best of them. I’ve been trying to figure out the singer that was sampled on one of my favorite tracks from Donald Glover’s Childish Gambino album, and to no surprise it was Adele on “Melt My Heart to Stone”. If you like “Melt”, check out “Do Ya Like” from Childish Gambino. The way Adele can jump around from folk, adult-contemporary and country shows that she is a true talent because she makes the transitions effortlessly. Hurt is the unifying theme with this assortment of tracks, but it’s the strength in her voice that delivers a sense of optimism from Miss Adele. If her new album is anything like “Rolling In The Deep”, we are in for something special. She has this amazing power with her voice that reminds me of Aretha Franklin and Etta James and that is certainly esteemed company.
I have had several encounters with Adele prior to this week and can say I really love her voice. On 19, there are a few tracks which are absolutely superb and show off her accent, maturity, sophistication, and voice. Then there are others which you just wonder why she even bothered putting on the album. Those superb tracks are exactly what I hoped Allison Iraheta would produce.
ReplyDelete‘Chasing Pavements’ is the most recognizable and is still my favorite on the album. It perfectly showcases her voice and contains the most emotion of any track on the album. ‘Best for Last’ is the next highlight. There isn’t as much emotion, but it shows how well she thrives in an upbeat song. Her voice sounds like it belongs in an upbeat Ella Fitzgerald arena, but she often tends to try to put it in an extremely mellow arena. ‘Cold Shoulder’ is almost a carbon copy of ‘Best for Last’, except its chorus is a hair annoying. On her slower tracks, it either takes a stellar vocal or a relatable story to keep my interest. ‘Daydreamer’, ‘Crazy For You’, and ‘Right as Rain’ fail in this respect, but ‘Make You Feel My Love’ is both relatable and demands your attention after a 3 track nap. ‘My Same’ was also refreshing with some upbeat guitar chords and further documentation of my Ella Fitzgerald reference with a demonstration of scatting 101.
Overall 19 was just ok, but it certainly grabbed my attention and my respect for Adele. I like ‘Rolling in the Deep’ better than ‘Chasing Pavements’ so I am very much looking forward to her sophomore effort.
Sorry it has taken us so long to write (David and I). It's already going to be a long week! My thoughts - I think Justin was absolutely right when he said the vocals are the main attraction here. That's part of why I was excited for this week in the first place. It's really hard for me to get into instrumental music, or vocalists I have to get used to - music like this just comes more easily to me.
ReplyDeleteHer voice is so beautiful and so unique that every track becomes uniquely her own. Now I know what Simon was always talking about on American Idol. Tracks like "Best for Last" don't even seem like they'd work without her, and that's a powerful hold to have.
I know that for most, "Chasing Pavements" was a first introduction to Adele, but for me it was Bob Dylan's "Make You Feel My Love," that grabbed my attention in the beginning. In fact, it remains my absolute favorite track on this album. I always thought the song itself, which was also memorably covered by Garth Brooks and Billy Joel, was beautifully written but never could be truly properly showcased by Dylan's voice (I know there are at least two of you who want to smack me now, but whatever). Adele's is one that's perfectly suited for a beautiful ballad like this.
Other notable tracks include "Daydreamer," "Best for Last," and "Hometown." Like I said, I'm a bigger fan of her ballads, but I can also appreciate a good jazzy number or something with a little more of a beat like "Tired." For me, it's interesting to be able to see similarities (like on "Tired" and the tracks with more of a beat) between this week and last week even if they are different kinds of artists.
Good choice Beth. And everyone else, I'll get the calendar updated ASAP.
Adele obviously has a great voice. Like country-mate Amy Winehouse, she's a throwback to the vocal jazz style that was popular in the 50's and 60's, although she's quite a bit more tame (in sound and public persona) than the seemingly crazy, drug-addled Winehouse. Unfortunately, I've heard a LOT of singers that possess outstanding voices, and it takes a lot to move me in this area. There are a few songs throughout the album that show some real personality, but overall I just see this album as coming from a young singer that just hasn't yet developed a way to separate herself from her idols.
ReplyDeleteThe album starts off with a couple of tracks that sorta just blew by me, but then comes "Chasing Pavements". This song was a hit for a reason....the chorus hits hard, and the orchestration behind it is sufficiently massive to go along with her gigantic voice. The next song, "Cold Shoulder" is one of my favorites on the album. The production is current, and it serves to present Adele as a more modern version of the torch singer than she seems to be throughout most of the album. Following this is a string of slow, ballad-type songs, which fall into the trap I was speaking of previously....they just lack anything to grab me and pull me in. "Right as Rain" does a little better than the previous tracks, with its more upbeat tempo, but I still find myself drifting off halfway through the track. Written by Bob Dylan, "Make You Feel My Love" connects with me in a way that the other songs on the album haven't, lyrically (which makes sense, given my love for Dylan's writing). Her vocal performance is really passionate, and this is the only ballad on the album that really struck a chord with me. "Tired" is another of my favorite tracks, with its quirky production. I think Adele sounds so much better with a heavier bass sound behind her, and if the song that Beth posted off her new album is any indication, hopefully she's gone more of that route recently. "Hometown Glory" closes the album out on a fantastic note. The song sounds to me like nothing else that came before it. Her voice is so powerful, and she finally shows a true personality, which may stem from the fact that the song is about where she comes from personally, not where her influences came from. I'll be getting a hold of her new album when it comes out next week, and hopefully there's more like this. Adele has a lot of promise...she definitely possesses the voice to set herself apart, now she just needs the rest of the package to back it up.
'19' Album Rating: 60%