album review: adele, 21

A few of you may have heard of Adele Adkins. Her unbelievable voice, vibrant personality and modesty won us over back in 2008 with her debut album ‘19’, showing the world that spunky Brit-soul has some new found fire.

Going back and listening to ’19’ you can tell that she had only just tapped into her potential, and that while her incredible voice was deserving of the attention, ’21’ takes it to another level. Of course, many fans had high expectations, with the line up of legendary producers like Rick Rubin, Jim Abbiss and Ryan Teder (he of Bleeding Love fame) but it’s obvious that Adele transcended the stars behind the production and pieced together a beautiful album that, more than anything, shows her growth and development as an artist.

Right from the first track, Rolling In The Deep, Adele demonstrates that she has now overcome the heartbreak she sang about in her first album. She depicts the ‘woman scorned’ in the best way possible. Sassy, frank, full of excellent tid-bits like ‘see how I’ll leave with every piece of you / don’t underestimate the things that I can do’. With every rendition of the chorus you can also feel that there is growing pride.

Probably the feistiest song of the album is Rumor Has It, with a solid blues feeling about it, putting you in a candle-lit bar in New Orleans. He Won’t Go is soulful, strong and reminiscent of Toni Braxton in her prime (fingers crossed she won’t fall as fast!).

Her cover of Lovesong (by The Cure) is sweet, a little sad and incredibly heartfelt. Not quite as groundbreaking as Make You Feel My Love (Bob Dylan cover off ‘19′), because Adele really does do her absolute best with just a piano and ‘that’ voice. Tribute to that is Someone Like You, along with Turning Tables. They are both Adele at her best; the rise, the fall, the clarity, and a shining connection with the lyrics really show her coming of age.

Overall, ’21’ will be a classic break album, thankfully minus the self-pity, and with a huge amount of soul.