She's back. The most soulful white girl in the world has returned with another megaton bomb of a pop album that, like it or not, is making huge waves, just like 21 before it. After four years of writers' block, baby raising, wondering whether or not to quit the music industry, and generally keeping to herself, world-wide phenomenon Adele has bestowed upon her millions of fans a follow up album that delivers well on those four years of waiting.
Adele is unique among pop stars in that she seems to have no haters. You see music elitists rolling their eyes and scoffing left and right at all of Adele's contemporaries, Beyonce, Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, etc. etc. You know the bunch. But Adele, even though she is as 100% pure, major-label-certified pop as the rest of them, has always commanded a certain respect. Maybe it's because of her humble attitude to fame and fortune, never flaunting her fame as a badge of greatness. Maybe it's how classy and not hypersexualized her image is, giving her a rare dignity in today's pantheon of celebrity superstars.
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| Appears on cover of Rolling Stone + Doesn't wear makeup = Babe |
Most of all, though, I think the sheer power and beauty of Adele's voice is what grabs the world's attention and demands to be recognized. It's in this regard that 25 delivers the most. Adele and her producers know that everyone is coming to this album to hear one of the most talented vocalists alive, and through each of the eleven tracks on this album, that's what they get.
"Hello," her record-breaking lead single, opens the record with skeletal instrumentation that leaves Adele and the listener alone to talk about what's been going on. Nothing impedes Adele from getting up close and personal with you, not unlike the stark closeness of the album art. You're never quite sure who she's singing to: a lover? Her past self? The music industry? It's that sort of mysterious pain that has made songs like "Rolling In the Deep" and "Make You Feel My Love" so infectious.
This familiar emotional ambiguity is simultaneously Adele's great strength and her great Achilles' heel. She certainly has an incredible knack for writing sad, soulful break up songs and this album would be dead on arrival without them. Only Adele can make songs like "Send My Love (To Your New Lover)" or "I Miss You" so downright compelling. But, at some point, it's just what we've heard again and again.
Her album titles, while not accurate in describing her age, as I once thought, have always brought the assumption that we're hearing about the specific events of this woman's life at a specific point in time, like each album is a numbered page in her personal diary. One can't help wondering, then: Is she really having these same experiences that she had on page 21, so to speak? page 19? I can't take it seriously when, on "Million Years Ago," Adele laments over some very dramatic, simplified Spanish guitar picking, "I miss it when life was a party to be thrown, but that was a million years ago." How can her life be that bad now, in the prime of a healthy marriage with a beautiful son and a thriving musical career, even with a short dry spell? Indeed, she has stated that her life is in "the best place ever." Why slather this new album with the same drama of a past life?
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| Adele with her husband, Simon Konecki |
But, again, it's evident that these sort of emotions and painful past experiences are what fuels her songwriting brilliance, so it's sort of a two-edged sword. You can't have a brilliant Adele ballad without the pain.
And maybe that's the beauty and elegant message to her music. There is no beauty without pain. No rainbow without rain. No "Send My Love" without "Million Years Ago."
My main gripe aside, Adele delivers exactly what we wanted to hear: one of the most solid pop albums you'll hear this year. In fact, you won't hear a better opening to a pop album this year than the first four tracks of 25. All over this record, we see a talented musician stretching herself with mature, beautifully produced music that is meant, first and foremost, to communicate sincere emotions. That's rare in today's sales-starved industry, and, just like Adele Atkins' stellar voice, deserves respect.
And yeah, probably some Grammy nominations, too.
| OVERALL SCORE: 7.4 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Adele – 25 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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