The follow-up to Adele\u2019s critically-acclaimed 19<\/i> bears similar scars to its predecessor, emerging as a bluesy, lovelorn ode to a beloved gone wrong. With two years more experience on 19, <\/i>though, 21 <\/i>finds Adele Adkins backed by an army of well-known producers and collaborators, including Rick Rubin and Ryan Tedder, and exploring different sonic territories than her debut.\u00a0 The songs here are irrevocably soulful, new versions of \u201cI Will Survive\u201d or \u201cYou Oughta Know\u201d for the 21st century girl obsessed with the boy that won\u2019t love her back. But there are never any lapses of cheesiness or the glossy immaturity characteristic of so many artists Adele\u2019s age; she\u2019s got a huge, booming voice that carries far beyond her 21 years, and the lyrics are is rich and mature.<\/p>\n
Opener \u201cRolling In The Deep\u201d is so instantly catchy with its slow-burning strums of guitar and ominous drumming, but it\u2019s when Adele\u2019s voice explodes on the chorus that everything comes together: \u201cThe scars of your love, they leave me breathless\u201d she sings, the backing vocals countering \u201cYou\u2019re gonna wish you had never met me.\u201d This is awesome stuff \u2013 not just girl power, but the lines anyone jilted by someone they\u2019ve cared about would love to say. With the subtle fury of the instrumentation, this is an opener that portends an excellent album.<\/p>\n
Adele keeps the tempo going on the stomping, seething \u201cRumor Has It,\u201d while \u201cTurning Tables\u201d (another track assisted by Ryan Tedder of OneRepublic fame) is a bare-bones piano and strings ballad laden down with sorrow. For all the gorgeousness of the more heart-wrenching tracks on 21<\/i>, I\u2019m still more partial to the sassy, pumped-up, countrified stuff. Adele is a master, of course, at yanking the coarse beauty out of even the worst heartbreak, but it\u2019s when she takes charge of her own sadness that she sounds so triumphant. <\/p>\n
Undoubtedly the best aspect of 21 <\/i>is the sheer realness of it all. A whole suite of A-list producers can\u2019t take the honesty out of Adele, who explores every emotion of the heart on this collection of songs. Even when she\u2019s begging for her lover back on \u201cI\u2019ll Be Waiting For You\u201d (\u201cI\u2019ll do everything different \/ I\u2019ll be better to you \/ I\u2019ll be waiting for you when you\u2019re ready to love me again\u201d), you can\u2019t help but be on her side as the harmonies envelop you in warmth and Adele\u2019s voice just soars. There\u2019s no sheen here covering over the imperfectness of what she\u2019s feeling as she sings these songs or puts them to paper; whether it\u2019s jealousy, rage, or utter abjectness, you\u2019ll find anything you\u2019d find in your own diary on this disc.<\/p>\n
Best of all, this disc does justice to The Cure\u2019s \u201cLovesong\u201d as the penultimate cut, turning it into a chill, bossa nova rendition that\u2019s less blatantly sentimental than the original. It all leads well into the intense final song, \u201cSomeone Like You,\u201d which finds the songstress stalking a former flame, now married. And yet, with the slow purr of her voice, you can\u2019t help but cheer for her to get what she wants after everything. Plus, the lyrics are just killer, going right for the heartstrings: \u201cDon’t forget me, I beg, I remembered you say, \u2018Sometimes it lasts in love but sometimes it hurts instead\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Overall, this is a solid album, sonically lovely, from a wonderfully mature artist. I think it could be better served with some tightening so there\u2019s never that feeling of predictability that can come with too many slow songs. But there\u2019s undeniably enough meat, not to mention personality and talent, on 21 <\/i>to ensure Adele an illustrious career. Sometimes all that heartbreak can turn into a multi-platinum music career.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":30597,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[8687],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-42265","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-adele","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42265\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42265"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=42265"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=42265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}