no adele thread yet?

Adele, Another one more like

--djmartian

word

Not The Dele, ...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/coventry/content/images/2006/02/07/goodbye_highfield_road_gallery_04_328x470.jpg

I'm sick of Adele.

Bring back Uffie.

aka adele stephens - page 3 stunner

http://www.quickbabes.net/adele-stephens/adele-stephens-00.jp

bad thread

Bad thread, you are beautiful.

I had a mate with a speech impediment who used to call Adebola "Delia Adeboner"

bad thread

-- blueski, Friday, January 4, 2008 2:43 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

it's here for the long haul, skip.

"Mark has been questioned by the police on account of the fact that the body of his fiancee, Natasha Collins, was found in the flat they shared.

"At the moment no-one knows what happened. Mark found her body in the bathroom and immediately called an ambulance and the police.

"The police are conducting further enquiries and a post-mortem is under way.

"Mark was the only other person present in the flat and has therefore been questioned by police as a matter of course.

"He is assisting police with their enquiries and had nothing to do with Natasha's death.

"Mark is absolutely distraught at the loss of Natasha and hopes that everyone will appreciate what a very sad time this is for both Mark and Natasha's family.

"Mark hopes that you will buy Adele's debut album, in shops January 28th. It's Adeleriffic!"

i like her.

much better than that kate nash trash you brits were getting excited about last year...

does he mean us?

yeah, I think she is OK... I don't know about that "you brits" thing, probably just a media reference? But I like her a lot better than that horrible Kate Nash. At least she has some smallish amount of integrity in a look at me I went to BRIT and happen to like Regina Spektor kind of way. She COULD be a lot better. Ultimately a disappointment and not really worth the amount of typing I have already done.

I am so sick of the XL/Moshi Moshi tastemaking mafia.

Her album is pretty good.. she's at her best when the backing music is whimsical and lively, when she does the whole "sparse singer-songwriter acoustic guitar" thing it's SO BORING (besides "Daydreamer").

Where were the XL/Moshi Moshi tastemaking mafia when Annie From Norway needed them? Eh?

She's not bad, but pretty much the safe alternative for people who hate the hip-hop influence and potty mouth of Amy Winehouse and find Kate Nash too cutesy.

That said, "Chasing Pavements" and "Right As Rain" are great songs. But can we declare a moratorium on covering "To Make You Feel My Love"? Billy Joel and Garth Brooks already ruined it for everyone else, especially if you aren't even going to try anything new with it.

the hip-hop influence and potty mouth of Amy Winehouse

Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh?

That was a nearly exact quote from my cousin as to why she didn't like Winehouse, she didn't like "the hip-hop stuff and her potty mouth". I'm just saying Adele is like the "safe" option for those that don't like Winehouse.

she's a better singer than winehouse imo.

but winehouse has better songs/is more interesting.

Dear Private Eye, blah-di-blah related seperated at birth yadda yadda

http://www.musicweek.com/pictures/468xAny/g/l/w/adele.jpg
http://www.xoospace.com/myspace/network/24937.jpg

new album entitled 21 is produced almost entirely by rick rubin, the first single is described as "gospel disco"

needless to say I am very excited 4 this

I thought Winehouse had the talent and Adele was just better looking, but Rick Rubin though, maybe I should try again. It didn't bowl me over.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lazyDlfaptM

:D

!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lUewA6Dyao

we could have had it alllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll

that's a hell of a song

Someone Like You = a worldwide number 1 hit if ever there was one. A reminder just how powerful a simple ballad with just a piano and a voice can be when it's done right.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHciwrfQQpU

she shouldnt pull her hair back like that

is she the writer? both of these songs are fantastic. they feel like classics already to me. i'm really surprised because i hated that chasing pavements song.

i kinda had the same reaction but the rusko remix of cold shoulder made me realise that its a kickass song and shes a great singer.

a worldwide number 1 hit if ever there was one

always weirded out when people use this line to praise a song. so it's about as good as "the time (dirty bit)", then.

anyway re: adele, i wrote this at the jukebox, but i was totally shocked by "rolling in the deep" - i'd hated everything i heard off her first album, so to hear her do something w/genuine gravitas and personality was a surprise. what happened to her in those two years?

(i don't think it's quite amazing, though - still a bit reverent to its influences)

yeah well adele was so clearly part of the a&r rush to replace winehouse before she ODed so its fair to assume that her first album might have been somewhat manhandled into shape whereas this one has the legitimation of **big name producer** rick rubin and I think that things like that tend to grant ppl a little more autonomy maybe. i mean obv this is speculation.

xp yeah 'classic' isn't a word i'd bandy about willy nilly but that's what comes to mind to me too re: Someone Like You.
writing credits are as follows:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/21_%28Adele_album%29
very much the Florence vibe; writer shows up with bits/ideas/bare bones, Epworth et al finish em off, take a half/third of the publishing. Adele herself has said the writing is "60%" hers.

also a useful reminder not to write off artists based on debuts made when they were a teenager, even if the hype and press line are tedious - certainly i don't expect songwritery artists (which adele is, i guess) to find their voice at that stage, and if they do then they're a rare exception

xp

what age is this chick??

the clue is in the album titles - i know, such a lame thing to do ONCE let alone twice

(i don't think it's quite amazing, though - still a bit reverent to its influences)

― lex diamonds (lex pretend), Friday, January 21, 2011 11:11 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark

i really like the song, but on a formal level, i'd state this differently. i think the "old motown" crowd would have had a little more play and spikiness in the backing. as it is this chugs along in a straightforward rock kind of way. i think if they had been reverent on that level it would sound less retro, if that makes sense. it's kind of white-stripes-y

i'd go with that - i was referring more to her vocal being reverent. i really like the arrangement, though.

also i've just listened to "someone like you" and...not feeling it, it's leaving me as cold/bored as the stuff off the first album. brit school ersatz soul, you are never too far away :(

oh shes my age

She's 22.

I definitely agree she has grown a whole lot since her first album (though there were a few choice songs on that one - "Right As Rain," "Cold Shoulder,"). 21 has some truly remarkable moments - I'd consider "Rolling in the Deep" a classic already, and other standouts for me "Set Fire To Rain," "He Won't Go," the bridge in "Rumor Has It" (incredible). She does have a tendency towards the maudlin and some of the songs are over-arranged, but yeah - I love how she melds all of these influences that I wouldn't necessarily like on their own - rockabilly, there's a definite classic rock influence on some tracks. Such a great voice too, obviously

yeah Rumour Has It is a barnstormer. dunno much about your man Ryan Tedder but hats off to him for his studio trickery anyway.

Someone Like You is in the itunes Top 20 and it's only an album track so far. The people have spoken! Currently the album is outselling the rest of the UK album chart combined. Hats off madame! http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/sessions/2011-01-27_adeleliveloungespecial

okay her cover of "Lovesong" is great

Thought she did an amazing job on "Someone Like You" at last night's Brits. Clearly a song with direct personal resonance, as she was on the brink of tears by the end of it.

"someone like you" has returned me to my original standpoint that she's a hack and a journeywoman. so dull.

The song is OK-to-good, but I thought the performance was outstanding, and highly affecting.

No one with a voice that good can really be considered a hack, but she's just a bit... boring.

bad thread

-- blueski, Friday, January 4, 2008 2:43 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

it's here for the long haul, skip.

― That one guy that hit it and quit it, Friday, January 4, 2008 2:47 PM (3 years ago) Bookmark

we did it

20/02/2011 - Adele equals Beatles’ record to lead Official Charts Brits Bonanza

Adele’s Someone Like You rockets up the Official Singles Chart from last week’s number 47 to become the UK’s new number one after her powerful live television performance at last Tuesday’s Brit Awards, while her current album 21 heads the Official Albums Chart for a fourth week, the Official Charts Company announces today.

Not content with achieving the chart double of simultaneous number ones in the nation’s Official Singles and Official Albums charts, the twenty-two-year-old artist boasts two more Top 5 hits this week; her single Rolling In The Deep and her debut album 19 are each at number four in their respective charts.

Adele is the first living artist to achieve the feat of two Top 5 hits in both the Official Singles Chart and the Official Albums Chart simultaneously since The Beatles back in January 1964 when their singles I Want To Hold Your Hand and She Loves You were numbers two and five and their albums With The Beatles and Please Please Me were numbers one and two.

Adele’s phenomenal achievement spearheads a huge surge in sales for all the artists who won or performed at the Brit Awards 2011. Total album sales for Brits’ artists were up 70% week on week with Laura Marling’s album I Speak Because I Can recording the biggest chart leap from last week’s number 80 to this week’s number 21.

Finally listening to 21. I like her, but I really wasn't in a hurry to hear it I guess. Too bad, because this is great!

she's a hack and a journeywoman

http://www.kaitaia.com/funny/g2/d/14063-1/Snoop.gif

She's no hack. Someone Like You is thumpingly predictable - seemingly designed for X-Factor cover versions - which makes the Brits performance all the more impressive.

okay her cover of "Lovesong" is great

It is really good, I was wondering whether you would like it or not.

Tiring though it is to be typing the words "Nabisco OTM" once again, this first para sums up exactly how I felt about the Someone Like You performance:

Sometimes you only really start appreciating someone like Adele when she’s singing a bad song. There’s some workmanlike, blandly tasteful arrangement lolling behind her like a boiled potato; the lyrics have gone all banal; the string section seems to be courting viewers of whichever network-TV drama needs to score a pensive montage ... and yet the main thing you’re thinking is: Who broke Adele’s heart, and why would they do that, and can they not hear how marvelous she is?

Full review here:

http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2011/02/adeles_21_its_the_singer_not_t.html

Why is everyone talking about how it's intentionally constructed for future television use? The songs sound pretty honest to me. I'm I just not as cynical as I used to be?

There's something very generic about the chord changes and arrangement of Someone Like You - it seems calculated and I think the honesty is all in the voice, ie in spite of the song rather than because of it. But then these days it's pretty hard to write a straightforward big-sounding piano ballad that doesn't sound like the closing scenes of Grey's Anatomy.

i fuck w/ this -- the world needs a good dramatic piano ballad every once in a while

her voice gets kinda weird tho when she goes into her upper registers

i loved "chasing pavements" too

i really like rolling in the deep

i really like rolling balls deep

Snrub otm, it's a great single! don't really care for anything else i've heard, but i haven't heard all of 21 yet

her Lovesong cover is an abortion btw, DJP u mad

yeah, the cover of lovesong is awful, easily the worst track on 21.

i mean, it's better than the 311 version, at least, though...

What is with you people over there:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/apr/04/adele-breaks-madonnas-album-record

Adele is some hot garbage son.

crazy how massive she is now

lol fat joek

I kind of despise this woman so it rather irritates me how much I love 'Rolling in the Deep' and 'Set Fire to the Rain'. Thankfully 'Someone Like You' is utter tosh!

True they are better songs. Can't stand her voice though. I just can't understand why she is so popular. Her image seems to appeal to people this kind of 'realness'. The matey, realness in interviews is such a turn off.

Maura notes something:

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/music/2011/05/adele_selling_out_commercials_festivals.php

Thats a great read.

I would love it if no one ever used the term "sell-out" to earnestly describe a professional musician ever again.

(to follow on from Maura's point)

i'm not really under the impression her diyness or whatever is going to be pushed here, "discount" tickets were for $200 in ny

("discount" being through whatever service my benefits provider provides which isn't usually all that much)

Adele never makes any claims to being DIY or having low ticket prices so I don't know what you mean there.

Maura is overstating the Gaga comparison (though it nicely provides her piece with a relevant angle.) eg.

funny, given Lady Gaga's constant assertions that she, too, doesn't lipsync, and writes her own material.

Yet in the Independent piece lip-synching and songwriting are never mentioned and the only contrast made with Gaga is her extreme ubiquity.This interview was covered in the Mail who chose to present a similar set of quotes to elaborate about Adele's anxiety attacks and self-image problems. I suspect this is actually the most common narrative for Adele, rather than as the anti-Gaga/women in music interpretation.

Anyway, I don't really see what Maura is so butthurt at Adele about. It's not even clear if the original Q interview presents these quotes as Adele's "rules". I haven't read the Q interview but most likely these are just random quotes which have been summarized this way by the writer at the Indie. Maura buys the idea that there's some kind of self-righteous personal manifesto at work, which allows for the accusations of supposed hypocrisy ("is autotune OK if you only use it during the marketing of your music?...Is appearing on TV shows for a straight week and taping an episode of Unplugged OK because it's "about the music").

I think you're mistaking what Maura thinks about Adele directly with what she sees as the rhetoric around her -- which, in fact, dovetails completely with your own point!

I realize the article is obstensibly about the media but there's potshots at Adele herself which are groundless - at least based on the Indie article.

I wish people would give the "soulless Autotune" criticism a rest, too.

Again, neither Adele nor the Indie article mention autotune at all.

no, but Maura did

Right. The majority of the supposed signifiers of authenticity mentioned in the VV piece are not present in the Independent article. So what's the point?

Meaning you've never heard anyone complaining about Autotune's supposed inauthenticity at all in any context? Quite a happy life you have.

seems like a bit of a popist knee-jerk reaction to traditional rockism yet as a popist myself has to be said i'm not picking up what she seems to be from the Indie piece. the Q piece hasn't even come out yet! i mean unless she's read it already? doesn't seem so. so this is a Voice piece, about an Independent piece, about a Q piece that no-one's read yet?!

and then the title says that its rebutting other articles that havent even been written yet

xxpost to Ned. A happy life despite many autotune complaints. But the most common complaint I hear about autotune is not really it's lack of "authenticity" but rather that it is aesthetically displeasing and is an extremely over-used production trick.

has to be said the cover looks pretty good!
http://i.huffpost.com/gen/281914/ADELE-Q-MAGAZINE.jpg

I think Maura's piece is a little premature - responding to arguments that haven't been made yet. Why shouldn't Adele adhere to certain principles if she likes?

To be fair, I don't think the point is that Adele shouldn't do what she wants to do; I think Maura is identifying an easy, semi-nonsensical rhetorical stance (Adele vs Gaga) and pointing out why it's stupid before other writers get a chance to latch onto it.

but thats a weird thing to do? surely you could find enough things to write about that you dont need to make up stances that other critics have

It's been an undercurrent to Adele's whole deal/appeal the whole time, though, this sense of a 'real' female singer inspired by 'real' music! Hell, for a lot of recent UK acts -- Amy Winehouse, Joss Stone, Duffy, etc. You can't handwave something that's been intrinsic.

It's not an undercurrent, it's the absolute cornerstone of her marketing/appeal, as much as it is was with Ocean Colour Scene or whoever.

I don't think "weird" is the right way to look at it; it's more that this is a thought piece pointed towards other critics that is also being presented to "the rest of us". The seeds of this are absolutely floating out there; I was listening to a lot of The Current a couple of weeks ago (indie rock public radio based in Minneapolis) during their pledge drive and their playlist was basically super lol indie (The Decemberists got played a HELL of a lot) mixed in with old Public Enemy and many, many, many promos for a competition to win tickets to see Adele. This was all intermingled with testimonials written by people giving pledges hailing the station for playing "real" music (like The Decemberists). It's a small sample size, I admit, but the sentiment Maura is reacting against is out there.

My only beef is with the autotune criticism, which I feel has become its own tired, overused dismissal tactic.

this is another can of worms that i perhaps shouldn't open given that i'm on deadline, but the way in which adele's body image is also conflated with her "realness" has made me kinda uncomfortable of late too - like, it's gone beyond applauding someone who refuses to ~conform~ to the ~ideal~ and into making the logical leap that because she doesn't diet, it makes her a more worthy (or better?) artist - and then you see quotes from her like "my aim in life is never to get skinny" and it's like, well done, you have replaced one weight-based goal with another. and then you see her bringing up nicole richie as someone she doesn't want to look like (someone who's had v public health issues re: her own weight), which is about as tasteless as you get.

xpost Sure, and I can understand the online journalism pressure to respond quickly, even it seems premature. But I do think Adele deserves some credit for the stance she takes on commercials and arena gigs, which is a distinct issue from whether NPR types think her music is "real".

xpost i don't think she can be blamed for 'replacing one weight-based goal with another' just because of one off-hand comment she made in an interview one time.

Maybe it's a good idea to see her as an opinionated individual rather than a trojan horse for revanchist rockism.

Lex I think your knee's jerking a bit there - that Adele quote is obviously a flippant and jokily defiant comment rather than an actual statement of intent. When you consider how many nasty comments she must get about her weight (coupled with the fact that it probably IS much healthier to be Adele than Nicole Ritchie) I don't really see the problem.

Maybe it's a good idea to see her as an opinionated individual rather than a trojan horse for revanchist rockism.

Hah, or this, alternatively.

Maybe it's a good idea to see her as an opinionated individual

yeah this is the line i see pushed a lot but her opinions aren't particularly earth-shattering and are in fact kinda dumb. this is like la roux (except not as bad), when someone who's perceived to be a counter to ~mainstream pressure~ says bolshy things (that are no better when you think about them) they're held up as this SMART REAL GIRL WHO SPEAKS HER MIND~~ - trading on being outspoken even though what they're saying isn't v interesting

She's not a counter to mainstream anything but what she's reacting against is too all-pervasive and damaging for you to just handwave away as part of some lazy rockism.

you guys are too smart to fall for her marketing schemes. you won't let a 22 year old woman push your buttons. you are to be applauded.

yeah this is the line i see pushed a lot but her opinions aren't particularly earth-shattering and are in fact kinda dumb. this is like la roux (except not as bad), when someone who's perceived to be a counter to ~mainstream pressure~ says bolshy things (that are no better when you think about them) they're held up as this SMART REAL GIRL WHO SPEAKS HER MIND~~ - trading on being outspoken even though what they're saying isn't v interesting

There are very few people who are actually interesting, is the thing, and most of them are not making wildly successful music at the moment.

I mean, right now the currently successful pop star who has come off the most interesting to me in an interview is Katy Perry, and that is solely because of how little conflict she sees between her stage show/songs and her Christianity.

i think it's cool that she's a bigger, um, pop star. makes her more real in my book. big girls with big voices always kind of the exception in pop? but it's refreshing anyway.

and she really is just using her voice to sell songs. that's pretty authentic!

i think it's cool that she's a bigger, um, pop star. makes her more real in my book.

really??????

i mean that attitude right there is what i'm reacting to. who cares what size she is? what bearing does that have on her music?

i mean i've heard the music everywhere but i didn't even know what she looked like until recently. her "image" isn't really a big deal over here from what i can tell.

Ha-ha. Right on Scott.

it doesn't matter as far as the music goes but image is such a huge part of the pop business. so it means a lot really.

"Who cares what size she is? What bearing does it have on her music?" is a bit of a disingenuous line to take though, especially when at least 95% of girls who are allowed to get ANYWHERE in the music industry are only allowed that far because they're conventionally attractive.

It'd be like if there was only one black performer in the charts and for someone to be all "Who cares what colour they are? It's the music that counts" and you would be the first to rail against that.

I think there's a kind of lazy cognitive shorthand going on here on both sides of the debate "she's real because she doesn't use autotune/is a bit heavier than other popstars" vs "she's rockist because she talks about being heavier than other popstars as if this makes her better than Beyonce/Gaga/whoever".

And I'm saying this as someone who doesn't even like Adele's music.

tbh I would love to destroy the image component of music appreciation, but this is largely because:

- as a performer who operates largely in the sphere of classical ensembles, I feel that it is irrelevant to the quality of the musical performances I participate in and that feeling seeps into my attitude towards the music I listen to;

- I rarely watch videos or go to shows that don't feature my friends

ergo, a good amount of the effort put into image is wasted on me (outside of, say, awards shows and SNL appearances, lol forever @ Gaga)

however, I am more than aware that my experience with music is nowhere near most other people's experiences and how foolish it would be to insist that things would be better if everyone processed it the way I do, even though not-that-deep-down I really believe that to be the case

she - adele - doesn't make a big deal about it in her songs though, right? looks and all that? a lot of skinny pop stars do make it a part of their act. that whole xtina don't let anyone tell you you aren't cool and beautiful thing. it's a thing. the madonna self-pity thing. i'm all for it actually. but it might actually make more sense coming from someone who looks like someone you might know.

the no sell out thing is even a headline in countess chocula's webpaperzine. so maybe maura was just slightly ahead of the curve:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/25/adele-in-q-magazine-fears-glastonbury_n_866633.html

I actually find it hugely depressing that anyone would attack that quote rather than, say, the institutional sexism of the music industry, *especially* some of the bits that peddle so-called "empowerment anthems".

even beyonce has to roll around on the ground and writhe like a snake to sell feminist enlightenment.

lol, that is why I think "Flaws and All" is Beyonce's strongest empowerment anthem

Matt OTM. Adele doesn't even make a big deal about her weight - she's no Beth Ditto - and in the Q feature she comes across as anything but dumb. I don't understand Lex's problem with her. (As a person, I mean - music aside)

It's like the Janelle Monae backlash. "Why is everyone interested in this interesting person? Won't somebody think of the generic R&B hotties?" Musicians shouldn't be punished for the prejudices of their dumbest proponents.

And might not Adele be an interesting alternative to the general showbusiness body-image psychosis that caused Nicole Richie so much trouble as opposed to being Richie's plus-sized persecutor?

as far as "authentic" goes, the u.k. has already set the standard to beat.

http://images.mirror.co.uk/upl/m4/apr2009/1/2/susan-boyle-pic-pa-106501596.jpg

lex i rememer reading yr blogpost about this, and how you thought it was rockist that she wanted to be on the cover of a music magazine rather than vogue, which, she's in music? is this really that bad/unusual?

that's not what i wrote

I should hope that's not what you wrote because that makes no sense whatsoever

Boneheaded rockism (like being on the cover of Q is a higher aspiration than being on the cover of Vogue) <- am i misreading this?

It's not quite like the Janelle backlash - for better or worse she was still operating within the same milieu as the rest of R&B. I don't think there are many popstars who are being deprived of press because of Adele, or that they're being dismissed as generic because of her music or anything. I mean, Adele's about as straight-down-the-line and mainstream as they come, musically.

I think there's also a UK/US split - the UK has always preferred more everyman/everywoman pop stars that you don't really get in the States. And then there's a residual UK suspicion of perfectly-formed pantheon of gods and goddesses type pop stars, even when they're really popular here, that Lex has often dismissed as "tall poppy syndrome". In reality I think it's a matter of accessibility vs exclusivity - you also hear it in the differing way British and American pop music approaches the idea of "the club".

(Or maybe the US's everymen and everywomen are elsewhere - hip-hop, country, rather than sort of pop music I'm talking about)

US everymen/everywomen are in record stores or logging on to iTunes/Amazon buying pop music rather than making it

Boneheaded rockism (like being on the cover of Q is a higher aspiration than being on the cover of Vogue) <- am i misreading this?

― just sayin, Wednesday, May 25, 2011 3:38 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

do me a favour and at least post the full fucking link rather than randomly c/ping one sentence. i really don't have the time right now to be dealing with ilx's crew of nitpickers

Adele is surely trying a bit too hard by going "I'd rather play a whole year at the Barfly". No one wants to play even ONE night at the Barfly.

Rolling Stone's treatment of its female cover stars is pretty appalling.

I would also like a link to Lex's blog post but since no one on either side of that argument can be bothered to provide any context I'll just make snap judgments on what's been presented on this thread.

haha sorry heres a link - http://alexmacpherson.tumblr.com/post/5216888381/adele-smokes-and-says-positive-stuff

(great url btw)

okay even in context I don't see how you can fault a musician for saying she would rather be featured by a music magazine than a fashion magazine, or IOW be recognized for her profession rather than her looks

that was an off-the-cuff post in response to that jpg being endlessly blogged and reblogged by the right-on idiots of tumblr all going "fuck yeah adele" as is their wont

i think the more interesting pertinent thing about the scale of Adele's success now isn't to do with a 'triumph in the face of body fascism' or whatever (hardly a problem in the era Adele's songs/ideals supposedly hark back to after all) but the sense that there can be only one person doing this kind of thing so supposedly well (considering Duffy's somewhat surprising nosedive, Rumer being apparently too niche, dormant Winehouse...different as they all are they're all retro tagged in the same way). doesn't seem like anyone is interested in Adele doing anything other than these sorrowful hearbreak anthems (no more than how thematically pigeon-holed many other big bands are perhaps - Coldplay spring to mind as ever, but it's almost always feels wrong).

feels like the industry required a multi million-seller for an older audience (funny given Adele's youth and inexperience) rather than a selection of different singers all covering similar territory all having similar success.

Yeah from a commercial standpoint Adele was a no-brainer, it's still annoying that you see headlines like the one above going 'Adele refuses to sell out', as if she had anything to sell out in the first place.

Adele refuses to sell out by playing slightly-more middle-of-the-road retro soul!

attitude to taxation is quite repellent:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2011/may/25/adele-tax-grievances

Okay she should stfu now. Suspect she's not alone among million-selling popstars in that regard though.

lol Adele, let me help you with your tax woes by not buying your music

back in the day peeps could protest by building a massive funeral pyre and throwing the records on it, like they did when the Beatles said they were bigger than Jesus and with disco records coz, well, I never really figured that one out, but it happened. Doesn't quite work with the MP3 generation, even millions of punters tapping the detele key simultaneously doesn't generate much noise now does it?

If they all time is juuuuuust right.

"it" dammit

One thing she's already given up: commercial tie-ins. To Adele, having your music in commercials in paramount to selling out.

"I think it's shameful when you sell out," she told the magazine. "It depends what kind of artist you wanna be but I don't want my name anywhere near another brand. I don't wanna be tainted or haunted."

interesting stance for someone whose current hot 100 #1 single had its initial boost up the sales charts fueled in no small part by film trailers and ads for tv shows

also i really fail to understand why it seems like so many people like her for not having a "typical popstar look" or whatever when it seems to me that, apart from being somewhat heavier but not notably so, in appearance she doesn't seem that atypical at all: she's extremely photogenic (i mean, the 21 album cover might be better than much of the music on the album), identifiable, easy to look at, etc. why is she painted as an anti-hero for her looks?

... Because she isn't skinny?

I mean, it's not really rocket science.

is not being skinny that uncommon though

Among pop stars???????? Is that a serious question?

Also, she's not that photogenic either.

sorry if this has already been said, but lex, the quote is ""My aim in life is never to be skinny," not ""My aim in life is to never be skinny"

uh...think her cherubic babyface is def a factor in her popularity and success tbh. note that her Q cover is a headshot (seem to recall the 'Chasing Pavements' video being particularly facially focussed also). she has a nice face but it can feel a bit (un-necessarily) heavy-handed/overcompensating at times.

I notice the preferred pose for her good photos is hiding her chin by looking over her shoulder or with a popped collar. She looks like shit on the cover or Rolling Stone.

In the Q cover she's looking over her shoulder with a high collar AND there's a weird little sprig of hair that hides her chin.

really? i don't think i've seen a photo of her (including the rs cover shot) and not been all "wow her face is stunningly striking"

and ok fine i guess my skinny question was very silly, sry bout that, i guess i asked because the whole "big-voiced slightly-large female" thing is not uncommon at all and for the majority of them we don't seem to bring up how unusual their weight is in terms of the entire pop landscap

e

and ok fine i guess my skinny question was very silly, sry bout that, i guess i asked because the whole "big-voiced slightly-large female" thing is not uncommon at all and for the majority of them we don't seem to bring up how unusual their weight is in terms of the entire pop landscap

― teledyldonix, Wednesday, May 25, 2011 3:39 PM (49 seconds ago) Bookmark

well, there are oldsters like Susan Boyle moving units on albums, and plenty of niche R&B stars with larger figures, but as far as young women with #1 pop singles, Adele is basically in the company of a bunch of skinny bitches

to split the difference a little, it is a known (i won't say 'accepted') archetype for a singer tho, kind of an eternal return kind of a thing.

Well yes, but it's not an archetype that usually rushes up the pop charts unless it's as an anonymous singer in the background while a skinnier, prettier woman lip-syncs in the video.

speaking of album covers, i'm glad she remembers herself cuz i didn't even know she had a new album out:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/49/IRememberMe.jpg

J Hud's been all over the media the last few months (more for touting her weight loss on talk shows and Weight Watchers ads than for her album having any big hits)

i was just trying to think of non-skinny american pop people and i didn't even know about the new diet thing!

An unhealthy lifestyle cast as a virtue (also, note the cigarette)

Lex, that is one of the most bizarre criticisms of a pop star I have ever read.

lex is just being ornery/contrary

again

its not always about rockism, sometimes ppl just get tired of fun vacuity

Love how that implies Adele is like Tolstoy or something.

love how you inferred that

shit getting real in the adele thread.

Love how shit's getting real in the adele thread

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/music/adele.jpg

she looks like she's got a touch of the downs

looks like a gormless mike leigh character there

"I think it's shameful when you sell out," she told the magazine. "It depends what kind of artist you wanna be but I don't want my name anywhere near another brand. I don't wanna be tainted or haunted."

Perhaps only haunting is the ethereal, touching quality of her music; Adele recently sat down for a sessions performance with AOL Music, absolutely blowing away the room.

Pedantic

anyway i see nothing wrong with someone pointing out some of the crappier/most superficial/vacuous things dominating pop music in 2011. what lex likes and backs at all costs is ruling the roost, so adele IS something of an anomaly in mainstream pop terms and someone offering opposition to that is never a bad thing. obv she cant claim underdog status selling as much as she does, but she isnt not your typical pop star - and obv aware of it, perhaps too much, but hey, nothing wrong with some opposition in music, even if her stance is going to have a few holes in it, hello pedants, these are pop stars were talking about - which im cool with. be nice if the music was a bit less MOR tho.

Anyway, I really have to hand it to Adele. I can't think of many other artists who seem equally beloved by teenage pop fans and older AAA listeners. Early prediction: "Rolling in the Deep" will be #1 on Pazz and Jop's 2011 singles.

anyway i see nothing wrong with someone pointing out some of the crappier/most superficial/vacuous things dominating pop music in 2011. what lex likes and backs at all costs is ruling the roost, so adele IS something of an anomaly in mainstream pop terms and someone offering opposition to that is never a bad thing.

Except you're not really doing anything except saying "mainstream pop is vacuous" without actually offering any examples, which is basically what people have been doing for as long as I can remember. I don't think you really understand what the Lex is saying given that, by and large, he wouldn't describe much of the music he likes as vacuous (afaik his favourite record this year is Let England Shake, so he certainly not backing "vacuous pop" against everything else).

In any case I'm not really sure there's much point further dissecting something Lex has already admitted was an off-the-cuff response to a JPG that was doing the rounds.

Early prediction: "Rolling in the Deep" will be #1 on Pazz and Jop's 2011 singles.

― jaymc, Thursday, May 26, 2011 9:03 AM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark

i have a vague gut feeling that it won't be, but only in the sense that there's 7 months ahead for something else to give it competition, it's definitely a lock for top 3

Yeah number 3 feels right.

yeah, she was talking about chart pop, not a new argument for sure, but one thats not un valid right now, even if adele isnt being specific

i mean, popstars are often not that articulate in this sort of thing, even rappers ('rockist' on all sorts of levels, without wanting 'real instruments' or anything like that) arent always pinpoint specific when they criticise other artists, doesnt mean theres no truth to what theyre saying

ive not read lexs full post, just saying that great, he likes pj harvey, but the stuff i often see him defending to the death is not like let england shake, but i dont want to make this all about lex, so yeah, lets not go down that route

i'm glad she remembers herself cuz i didn't even know she had a new album out

lol

Oh BTW...

@maura
maura johnston
facepalm. MT @ToureX: Gaga & Adele are a very interesting pop culture dichotomy. A full on character vs authenticity.

Wouldn't argue about the artifice of Gaga, surely that's the point. It's the authenticity of Adele that gets the eyeroll.

Makes me think - is the idea of authenticity now so degraded that applying it to anyone would get the eyeroll? I think it's always been problematic and it's got to the point where I never ever want to see it used without scare quotes. I think Adele's appeal could fairly be described as "authenticity" rather than authenticity.

Why "authenticity", though? Why not "simplicity", since the essence of her performance ethos is "girl with big voice sings at u"?

Are you asking me or Toure? I used "authenticity" because however unreal and misleading that concept is in mainstream pop, Adele is clearly satisfying a craving for the "genuine", "unadorned", "real", "organic", etc. I think a lot of that genuinely comes from her personality and music taste but there's an element of calculation in the presentation - the black-and-white sleeve, the choice of which influences to foreground. For example, she's a massive Mary J Blige and Lauryn Hill fan but you can't hear any hip hop in 21. Not that it's as shamelessly "authentic" as the first Joss Stone album.

you can hear R&B in there, its obv from her singing style, its just contained in more of a capital fm listenership-pleasing aesthetic. shes a much more... AUTHENTIC singer than joss stone in any case. much more natural/unoforced. even though i think shes still figuring out how to best control/use her voice.

her general pose re: authenticity/being ordinary etc tbh reminds me of plan b more than anyone else

lot of similarities

Really? Plan B plays on artifice - the whole Strickland Banks persona, the shifting genres. All they have in common is that they're white working-class Londoners - and both funny and candid - so maybe their personalities signify "authenticity".

yeah, the whole 'no bullshit, i tell it like it is, i dont care about sugarcoating my opinion' thing is def a big common thing. and the whole MOR sound in spite of that 'tude is also something they share. there were some other things too but my minds preoccupied.

Am I the only one who liked the first album better? At least judging from the songs that I've heard from the new one, they seem kind of over-arranged to me. I liked the more spare arrangements on _19_. Also "Chasing Pavements" > "Rolling in the Deep".

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/may/29/adele-change-women-music-business

"XL's Richard Russell blames 'boring, crass and unoriginal' music on industry's over-sexualisation of female artists"

good thing we discussed all of this in advance of anyone saying it.

'A success, in pop, is never just a success – it's always ready to be spun into a triumph for some wider force.'
says Tom Ewing
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2011/jun/02/tom-ewing-adele-success?CMP=twt_gu

i miss when novelty hits were novel

damn "Someone Like You" is depressing as shit.. I think I like this.

it has a new video.. this was my first time hearing this song

great cover of rolling: http://soundcloud.com/work-drugs/rolling-in-the-deep-adele

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/10/arts/music/paul-epworth-on-producing-adele.html?ref=arts

Tell us a little about how “Rolling in the Deep” came about.

A. I had all these chords I thought would be perfect for her. You know, little musical riffs or themes. I tried all these out on her for about two hours. She literally sat there with a pen in her hand staring blankly, and she just went, “I’m not feeling anything.” And then she went, “I’ve got this riff, this idea, that’s going round and round my head,” and I went, “Go on then, what is it?” And she went, [sings] “There’s a fire.”

I said wow, and I just grabbed a guitar and quickly tried to figure out what the key was. She had all the verses, that thematic melody that she uses all through the song. I put all the verses down as one long recording, and then we put spaces in the track to start work on a prechorus and a chorus. We wrote the core of the song — her verses and the chords — in under 15 minutes. And the rest of it was structured over two hours.

Q. Her vocal track that you recorded that day for a demo ended up on the album. Why didn’t you redo it?

A. Adele was going through something. She had had her heart broken, and she was in pieces, and you can really hear that, her anger and her sadness. Sometimes I just don’t think you can recreate that or fake it. My hunch is that we captured something in her vocal performance that was going to be very hard to recreate

The science of "Someone Like You":

http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/RV-AF961A_ADELE_G_20120210234610.jpg

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203646004577213010291701378.html?mod=WSJ_LifeStyle_Lifestyle_5

spare us a tenner til Monday?

http://www.nme.com/news/adele/62071

the headline "Adele shows off her new £7 million, 10-bedroom mansion in new video" makes it sound like the Hype Williams-directed clip for the Swizz Beatz remix of her new single takes place in her mansion

ha

French paper publishing Adele sextape tomorrow. Skeezy.
http://www.jeanmarcmorandini.com/article-263995-une-sextape-de-la-chanteuse-adele-diffusee-sur-le-net-et-dans-le-magazine-public.html

does anyone really wanna see that lol

yes. yes i do.

god, the leaked pic is disturbing enough. not sure if I'm gonna be able to watch it.

that's a still from a sex tape

?

une sextape

yes, supposedly it's a still from the sextape. adele's image is ruined for me now.

Can't believe L'Académie française has not come up with a word for "sex tape."

In other news, she's been moaning about paying tax again, hasn't she?

somebody linked me this pic, but Adele really isn't the highlight:

http://i41.tinypic.com/zkijvl.jpg

lmfaooo. i wish this were real

Looking forward to the celebration-of-motherhood album then.

‏@JennyJohnsonHi5
Adele's pregnant, man her next album is gonna suuuuuuuuck

I didn't realize Adele is younger than I am!

Regarding the decline of the music industry thread elsewhere, it might be interesting to discuss "21". As in, why did this particular album actually go on to sell in numbers otherwise unheard of in the 2010s? Not being on Spotify until 2013-ish may have helped, surely? And appealing to a somewhat older audience? But, really, 30 million copies (probably even more as this is the sales by 2014). That is just so enormously much more than anything else released in the 10s. So why?

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/10/18/adele-new-music-25-x-factor_n_8326472.html

tristan wilds' biggest role since the wire tbh
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQHsXMglC9A

new song firmly in my head :/

Because grandmas and old women like Adele and they don't stream or download.

it's pretty fucking dreary

good iD interview here

Danger Mouse, Paul Epworth, Bruno Mars all on the album. supposedly it sounds like 70s soft rock!

https://i-d.vice.com/en_gb/article/adele-exclusive-full-cover-story-i-d

obvious point but still interesting to me how much "hello" clings to yet inverts the emotional drama of "someone like you"- this is the guilty other side answer song to her previous hit- how do you manage the nostalgia you feel for a relationship that you ended? it's subtler, less self-indulgent, i guess more "mature", and it manages to loop her listeners back insofar as it's a reminder song about reminded, so the career arc and lyrical situation both click

er, about being reminded

adele is such a fucking plodding pedestrian bore

adele should probably scrap the new album and redo it with this guy from "the voice" doing all the lead vocals:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCzkD-vu84g

guy pwnd that song!

music videos w long intros = duuuuud and whats up with all the dialogue and noise? also just a lot of useless belting, as if that's supposed to make her sound like a good singer... esp lol when they zoom in on her at 2:50 and belting is out of sync, who edited this vid?

yes it is all so dull and poorly executed that it's.... more popular than star wars, huh

I was def impressed by the view count

well, something's connecting with people, is my point.

to me she kinds sounds off the rails on this song. "when i call you never seems to be home" - oh he's home, adele. he's home.

does popularity magically cancel out boring art?

I don't think the song is as poor as the execution, but I think - and this may ofc just be projection - that she has a lot of goodwill and that may account for some of the popularity

i just find it amazing that you can take this massively successful pop object and slate it on technical, craftsmanship grounds, when it's like, if it were that poorly executed surely you would not get that many people liking it?

i mean, either that or "execution" is maybe not as important to most people as it is to you

lots of popular stuff is poorly executed and/or boring! technical execution doesn't really seem important to casual fans

how could something boring be more popular than star wars

I think some unfortunate aesthetic choices were made in that video - I don't like long intros, and I think the background noise is annoying (in that way it reminds me a bit of the "Hold On We're Going Home" video which is unlistenable). That's not poorly executed, it's just something I dislike. The editing around 2:50 however is simply sloppy or there's something wrong with my computer. And I think a belting chorus is a bad way to showcase a good vocalist, but I'm very open for arguments.

On pure technical terms, it sounds like she is lifting her soft palette more and pressing less when she goes full barrel, likely an adjustment she made after dealing with nodes; her voice is still recognizably her but the knife edge that floated underneath it on most of her songs (particularly "Rolling in the Deep" and "Chasing Pavement") isn't there.

Even more so than Swift, Adele seems anecdotally one of the few acts I sense kids and adults like equally. I hear little kids singing Adele songs all the time, but when this new single came out several adult friends of mine on Facebook made "ZOMG Adele is back!" posts. And am I right that she barely even toured America? She played a capacity 2500 place here back in 2011, that was it for Chicago.

I think the song is a total bore, but the execution, from the announcement to the release to the song's themes seem perfectly suited to capitalizing on the type of popstar Adele is advertised as being.

in terms of ~feel~, sonic arc etc. this song reminds me a bit of leona lewis's "run" cover. except that was great and this is rather mediocre :\

a little too on the nose too, like damn after all these years you are still singing about the same shit in a hardly-different-at-all perspective

I don't find her an exciting artist myself qua music, but the massive, massive popularity of emotional songs about resignation, regret, loss, nostalgia and guilt interests me because I work on emotion and affect and melancholy in my scholarly other life, and when you have someone completely smashing the sales figures with work that is so much about wallowing in negative emotions that is really interesting even if she's not making "interesting music" (to me)- her fame x her art as an equation is interesting even if the art isn't, because it suggests a weird groundswell of collective feeling surfing on the appoggiatura and getting pleasure out of suffering

of course if it was my job to review and write about pop music and I lived in the city where her PR team / machine was grinding her in my face relentlessly I would really have no time for her shit at all so i feel u lex :)

her PR team doesn't have to work too hard tbh

I like the idea of hello being a reply to hotline bling...

supposedly it sounds like 70s soft rock!

hello rumer.

this almost makes the song acceptable
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZwGLYjxdXU

this song is boring & terrible

I was walking down our alley and we passed a sorority house where what sounded like ten girls were singing along at the top of their lungs and when they hit the chorus, ouchhhhhhhh. Terrifying!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDWKuo3gXMQ

this one sounds to me a bit like that big ballad on the brandon flowers album (which in a way makes sense as reichtshaid produced the studio version)

could do with a bit of a donk on it though. there's a shellback song on the album, i'm intrigued by that at least

new song is just .. there.

The album is also just...there.

Holy Shit: http://m.billboard.com/entry/view/id/149035

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/adele-officially-breaks-nsyncs-single-843545?facebook_20151124

why did i ever like adele. this sounds like a reality show winner's album.

people love this though and seem to think she is the most talented thing ever . idk it's just ok

people are buying a personality (adele is pretty irresistible as a person) and an outlook on heartbreak, and the music is a functional device to deliver those things, it is "good enough"

she's such a great example of how far a "normal" persona gets you. "oh she'd be fun to go down the pub with" the fucking nigel farage of pop

xp!!

embodiment of yt privilege too obv, imagine a black woman singing ballads about heartbreak having even half her success in the past...two decades?

lol

So I just heard this for the first time, and the formula seems to be Pat Benatar verse + American Idol chorus, repeat

The consensus / ubiquity of Adele also reminds me of Macy Gray's popularity circa 2000, before anyone used the term "monoculture" to describe things that were bland enough for everybody to enjoy

i forgot another element, her voice, which you kind of have to admit is great? alongside that i'd add something about her JUDGMENT as a singer - she goes big when she needs to, she keeps it simple when she needs to

FIVE STARS in the new rolling stone

i thought it was well established that when it comes to the big acts rolling stone are whores

Adele is ... the Goddess in the Doorway.

They play a dance mix of "Hello" on the pop station here, I don't get it

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/85/Adele_-_Hello_%28Official_Single_Cover%29.png

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/417B43SPBCL.jpg

Tried to help a schoolteacher friend buy tickets this morning, but no dice.

you had to work late?

pic.twitter.com/hjhNsOTA75

— Adele (@Adele) October 18, 2020

this will surely be showered with grammys

It's an SNL episode - https://variety.com/2020/music/news/adele-saturday-night-live-h-e-r-1234808863/

so it's not actually an album? gutted & heartbroken, truly we are living in the worst timeline, etc.

ohhh never mind, i thought she and h.e.r. were gonna release a duet. it will probably get grammys-a-plenty regardless

Anybody heard her new single “Easy on Me” yet?

it’s quite forgettable

So much littering in the video...

on first listen i'd say i like it

really been dreading her “comeback”, i still have nightmares of hearing “hello” everywhere for 2 years. she is awful

the one time I got an MRI I made the mistake of asking for the radio to be on, and it was when Adele was big. I'll never forget being trapped motionless in a tube listening to "Never mind I'll fiiiiind, someone like youuuuuuuuuu BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM foooooor youuuuuuuuuuu BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM"

'Hello' is sick, to me this the official and only version
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spfFwPzM7sg

xp literally LOL

Apparently worked with Inflo on the new album, only thing that has me intrigued

'hello' is all-time

this is better than any of her previous huge hits

looking forward to the inflo tracks at least

I listened to 21 a ton. Then Hello and 25 came out and they were garbage, and I stopped listening to 21.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8Z8J7-sZks

not even that can really salvage "hello" unfortunately

only this can
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrLr1mF7ZdU

I made the mistake of listening to "Easy On Me" after a morning blasting soft Jessie Ware.

It's fine. You know what's a jam? "Rumour Has It." Forgot about that one. I pretend Ryan Tedder credit doesn't exist.

I think "Send My Love (To Your New Lover)" absolutely destroys everything else she's ever done. New song seems "adult contemporary" in a really bland way, but the chorus has a nice melody

Not life changing but it’s pleasant

i really dislike some of the songs ppl are singling out as their one adele song they like

“Rumor Has It” is a jam! (I’m not gonna look up who Ryan Tedder is)

ryan tedder is partly responsible for lil nas x's "thats what i want" (not saying he's best known for that, but it is something he has done lately)

basically there is a line, and the dude from the fray is on the "yes okay i can dig this piano ballad" side and ryan tedder is on the "there is no justice that you have eyeballs but stevie wonder is still blind" side, and on top of it all, the fray guy is the one confined to his own band's songs. (not like i'm itching to hear what the guy from the fray would write for beyonce, im just saying)

― meme-first attitude (J0rdan S.), Monday, July 27, 2009 6:29 PM bookmarkflaglink

New song is pleasantly mediocre; it may grow on me (most of 21 did).

I think the news song is great

What is the chorus of Send Your Love reminding me of? Cocteau Twins?

sorry, Send My Love (To Your New Lover), which someone mentioned

Tove Styrke - Say My Name?

xps that Nola mix is awesome!

enjoying the new song

I'm not a huge Adele fan, but I think her voice sounds terrific on this new single (good song, too).

You're all real poptimists again, well done, you can stop doing this now

to be clear i don't think the new one is good, just a more tolerable sort of blandness than she's managed in the past

everything about this has been entirely predictable - how it sounds, what it's about, the reaction to it. I think it's really sad that arguably the biggest popstar in the world just now, and the team behind her, are so afraid to take any risks whatsoever. I'm not saying it would make sense for her to go hyperpop or spearhead a nu-metal revival, but even Ed Sheeran will go do features with artists you wouldn't necessarily expect.

Basically what I'm saying is, when are we getting Adele's big disco album?

When Silk Sonic beat her for Album of the Year.

I wish she would do a collab similar to what Anohni did back in the day with Hercules & Love Affair. She has a voice that would sound great if properly used on a disco / house anthem. I generally dislike piano ballads with histrionic singers so I’m not really into her. Hope she tries something different but I don’t have my hopes up.

Funny that just some months ago I was writing that Inflo is underrated in the mainstream and should work with a higher profile musician like Adele.

Oh don't worry, Inflo is going to be absolutely everywhere very very soon

Unclear whether boxedjoy means the big disco album would be the risk or the entirely predictable move, lol

He has proven to have great taste as a producer and be versatile enough that I wouldn’t mind if he did started popping everywhere.

She should hook up with the Dap Kings, or cover "Stand Up In It", or both.

haven't heard this yet, but damn is it getting written up well. any poptimists here wanna stan and convince me, who really hasn't cared much for her or her music, to dive into this?

it's the most compelling she's ever been but still not even inflo could make her interesting

i am coming around on the new song, i dunno she has a kind of witchcraft with this stuff imo

have not listened to the album but i don’t think i’ve ever listened to an adele album

Imagine a time there was no Adele thread

I listened to the last track because a friend asked me to. It was okay!

i was interested in this because of the inflo involvement, but the best tracks for me are "all night parking" and "my little love" (though the latter features voice notes that are almost uncomfortably intrusive), which are greg kurstin productions. he's also responsible for "i drink wine" which is probably the worst song on the album. all in all, i probably concur with ufo that it's generally a step in a more compelling direction but i'd definitely reach for joy crookes' skin or cleo sol's mother over this (which are but two recent albums using a similar sound palette)

yeah i absolutely thought 'if only it was more like mother'

I've heard it couple of times when driving with my BF and although it's decent, couldn't get rid of the thought that I 'cannot wait' to get back to another recent divorce album, kacey's star-crossed

Oof, talk about damning with faint praise.

Here’s a secret: she’s not 30
I know this is a small detail but lol

I guess she needed some time to kind of figure out what it felt like to be 30

this album sounded trippy af to me, the first side anyway

Not really an Adele nerd, but aren't her titles the age she was when started on the album?

it’s okay this is a safe space

I can only imagine what this album sounds like. “Ooh, thirty…thirty now”

why is she balling about not having a concert? jfc

bawling rather lol it's just weird

Because she's so sad. Maybe she'll release an album about it. She could call it "Lost Vegas."

I always wished I caught this show The timing was ridiculously perfect - like they booked these small venues before she really turned into a megastar, and things just rapidly blew up during the course of the tour. Apparently even then-mayor Rahm Emanuel pulled some strings to get into the show.

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgpJL9WzXMYFyIvA7gJ0XTtTB27hwT3HU

Honestly, those are my favorite kinds of shows, where you catch the act at a place you are already well aware they will never play again.

I worked at Tower Records in Manhattan in the early 90s. Nirvana came in and did about a 45 minute set in the store right when Nevermind was released. My biggest memory of the event was that they were fucking loud.

It's especially perfect when they're doing their best material. Nevermind goes without saying, and in Adele's case, I actually think her albums have gotten worse each time out - the first is still my favorite, the second is uneven with great highlights, and both were the only ones she could draw from when she did that tour.

I thought she sounded like Amy Winehouse when I first heard her.

she was a huge Amy fan - iirc Amy was why she started singing!

i saw what i think was adele's first american show. she was fine but i think i left early.

Aw, this warms my heart:

https://www.vulture.com/2022/01/adele-facetime-fans-las-vegas-residency-apology.html