yes it is all so dull and poorly executed that it's.... more popular than star wars, huh
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Thursday, 29 October 2015 09:35 (eight years ago) link
I was def impressed by the view count
― niels, Thursday, 29 October 2015 10:26 (eight years ago) link
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.
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Thursday, 29 October 2015 10:31 (eight years ago) link
does popularity magically cancel out boring art?
― lex pretend, Thursday, 29 October 2015 10:54 (eight years ago) link
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
― niels, Thursday, 29 October 2015 11:04 (eight years ago) link
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?
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Thursday, 29 October 2015 11:06 (eight years ago) link
i mean, either that or "execution" is maybe not as important to most people as it is to you
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Thursday, 29 October 2015 11:08 (eight years ago) link
lots of popular stuff is poorly executed and/or boring! technical execution doesn't really seem important to casual fans
― lex pretend, Thursday, 29 October 2015 11:28 (eight years ago) link
how could something boring be more popular than star wars
― Tell The BTLs to Fuck Off (wins), Thursday, 29 October 2015 11:49 (eight years ago) link
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.
― niels, Thursday, 29 October 2015 12:05 (eight years ago) link
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.
― I Am Curious (Dolezal) (DJP), Thursday, 29 October 2015 13:22 (eight years ago) link
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.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 29 October 2015 13:31 (eight years ago) link
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.
― Greer, Thursday, 29 October 2015 14:11 (eight years ago) link
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
― dyl, Thursday, 29 October 2015 15:04 (eight years ago) link
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
― the tune was space, Thursday, 29 October 2015 16:49 (eight years ago) link
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 :)
― the tune was space, Thursday, 29 October 2015 17:02 (eight years ago) link
her PR team doesn't have to work too hard tbh
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Thursday, 29 October 2015 17:03 (eight years ago) link
I like the idea of hello being a reply to hotline bling...
― niels, Thursday, 29 October 2015 22:46 (eight years ago) link
supposedly it sounds like 70s soft rock!
hello rumer.
― mark e, Thursday, 29 October 2015 22:49 (eight years ago) link
this almost makes the song acceptablehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZwGLYjxdXU
― expertly crafted referential display name (Jordan), Friday, 30 October 2015 20:18 (eight years ago) link
this song is boring & terrible
― welltris (crüt), Friday, 6 November 2015 14:44 (eight years ago) link
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!
― the tune was space, Friday, 6 November 2015 15:02 (eight years ago) link
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)
― art baengels (monotony), Tuesday, 17 November 2015 12:15 (eight years ago) link
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
― art baengels (monotony), Tuesday, 17 November 2015 12:16 (eight years ago) link
new song is just .. there.
― piscesx, Tuesday, 17 November 2015 15:54 (eight years ago) link
The album is also just...there.
― Greer, Thursday, 19 November 2015 15:31 (eight years ago) link
Holy Shit: http://m.billboard.com/entry/view/id/149035
― Boz Scaggs was Adele back in 1976 (C. Grisso/McCain), Sunday, 22 November 2015 08:15 (eight years ago) link
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/adele-officially-breaks-nsyncs-single-843545?facebook_20151124
― Boz Scaggs was Adele back in 1976 (C. Grisso/McCain), Tuesday, 24 November 2015 17:29 (eight years ago) link
why did i ever like adele. this sounds like a reality show winner's album.
― aaaaablnnn (abanana), Friday, 4 December 2015 13:29 (eight years ago) link
people love this though and seem to think she is the most talented thing ever . idk it's just ok
― (•̪●) (carne asada), Friday, 4 December 2015 14:05 (eight years ago) link
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"
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Friday, 4 December 2015 14:23 (eight years ago) link
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!!
― lex pretend, Friday, 4 December 2015 14:26 (eight years ago) link
embodiment of yt privilege too obv, imagine a black woman singing ballads about heartbreak having even half her success in the past...two decades?
― lex pretend, Friday, 4 December 2015 14:27 (eight years ago) link
lol
― nova, Friday, 4 December 2015 16:00 (eight years ago) link
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
― Jimmywine Dyspeptic, Friday, 4 December 2015 16:22 (eight years ago) link
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
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Friday, 4 December 2015 20:12 (eight years ago) link
FIVE STARS in the new rolling stone
― nomar, Wednesday, 16 December 2015 00:39 (eight years ago) link
i thought it was well established that when it comes to the big acts rolling stone are whores
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 16 December 2015 00:47 (eight years ago) link
Adele is ... the Goddess in the Doorway.
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 16 December 2015 00:47 (eight years ago) link
They play a dance mix of "Hello" on the pop station here, I don't get it
― nova, Wednesday, 16 December 2015 07:10 (eight years ago) link
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/85/Adele_-_Hello_%28Official_Single_Cover%29.png
― niels, Thursday, 17 December 2015 14:58 (eight years ago) link
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/417B43SPBCL.jpg
― how's life, Thursday, 17 December 2015 19:35 (eight years ago) link
Tried to help a schoolteacher friend buy tickets this morning, but no dice.
― (please no long guns of any kind) (Eazy), Thursday, 17 December 2015 19:40 (eight years ago) link
you had to work late?
― Die Angst des Elfmans beim Torschluss (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 17 December 2015 20:22 (eight years ago) link
pic.twitter.com/hjhNsOTA75— Adele (@Adele) October 18, 2020
― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 18 October 2020 18:23 (three years ago) link
this will surely be showered with grammys
― dyl, Sunday, 18 October 2020 19:10 (three years ago) link
It's an SNL episode - https://variety.com/2020/music/news/adele-saturday-night-live-h-e-r-1234808863/
― Guitar Dick (morrisp), Sunday, 18 October 2020 19:57 (three years ago) link
so it's not actually an album? gutted & heartbroken, truly we are living in the worst timeline, etc.
― (peech) or (buht ih-moh-jee) (unregistered), Sunday, 18 October 2020 20:42 (three years ago) link
ohhh never mind, i thought she and h.e.r. were gonna release a duet. it will probably get grammys-a-plenty regardless
― dyl, Sunday, 18 October 2020 20:59 (three years ago) link
Anybody heard her new single “Easy on Me” yet?
― Mr. Snrub, Friday, 15 October 2021 00:04 (two years ago) link