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 | Tracklist:
1. Rolling in the Deep
2. Rumour Has It
3. Turning Tables
4. Don't You Remember
5. Set Fire to the Rain
6. He Won't Go
7. Take It All
8. I'll Be Waiting
9. One and Only
10. Lovesong
11. Someone Like You
Release Date: 01/21/2011 | |
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On 54 Lists
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We're led to believe by critics that at any given time there are a number of musical revolutions taking place. Every individual niche is sticking it to some other niche, willingly or not. You've got to wonder if this is the natural endpoint for criticism – if, at this point, a critic must make comparisons or else point out the opposites in order to get people to listen – or if there really is so little musical originality now that comparisons have simply become inevitable. As if everything is so similar that one would feel uncomfortable not mentioning similar artists. Guilty, even.
It makes it very surprising when something happens that should spark a revolution but doesn't. Case in point: Adele's performance of “Someone Like You” at the 2011 Brit Awards. Adele in a black dress singing into a black microphone on a black stage with a black piano. Journalists raced to be the first to use the phrase “let the music speak for itself” and to contrast her performance with those of Lady Gaga, but there was more to it than that. If you watched and listened closely, you heard her voice grow shaky and you saw her eyes start to shimmer during the last chorus. It wouldn't be wrong to think that the critics were mistaken, then, to claim that she was letting her music speak for itself. Tears aren't like absurd costumes or set pieces, but they are a supplement nonetheless – one that could be perceived as a gimmick. But if the tears were artifice, they were also rooted firmly in reality which not only saved the performance but elevated it to something more. A gimmick is not necessarily always a negative thing; it only becomes a negative when the gimmick overshadows the music. Most people probably didn't even notice that it had happened. It was something special, almost secret, something to be shared with people who were paying attention. Without it, it was an amazing performance. With it, it was something even greater.
Because something else people might have missed is that she smiled afterward. That is what sets Adele apart from her contemporaries, from the bombast of the current musical climate, from the gimmickry of award show performances and all their absurdities. Because her music is as much for her as it is for the audience. To make her feel the same pain over and over but also to work toward healing it. Too often these days it seems like artists cater to their audience, trying to write something they think people want to hear rather than writing something they themselves would want to hear and connect with. It's a problem that transcends genre, but who would have thought that a pop artist would be the one to find success by writing music for herself and finding that people will recognize that? On 21, Adele's heartbreak is a beautiful, palpable thing, full of the requisite pain and, more importantly, believable in its bitterness. She is not doing anything new. On the contrary, what she's doing is quite old. It hearkens back to a time that for all we know might never have existed, when all music seemed genuine and full of real feelings and the power to inspire and sustain and move. Almost certainly it never existed. But hearing Adele sing makes it believable anyway. Hearing a voice that grows scratchy and threatens to break and has not been tampered with, has not been slicked over in a studio, a voice that reveals all that can be found within a person and also seems to hold something back, to suggest another truth just behind the veil.
What's quite sad is that there is no such thing as a musical revolution anymore. Technological innovations change the way we listen to music, but the music itself remains the same. There are still influential artists but the most they can manage are micro-revolutions. That is, I think, enough. But sometimes it's nice to wonder what could be if artists like Adele did spark something. If they were to inspire a generation to feel as if they could beat back the darkness with their voice. As if they could be moved to tears by the depth of their own feelings and then to smile in the next moment and then to weigh which lasted longer and if it even matters.
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| Recent reviews by this author | | | |
Album Rating: 3 | Sound Off
We're led to believe by critics that at any given time there are a number of musical revolutions taking place. Every individual niche is sticking it to some other niche, willingly or not. You've got to wonder if this is the natural endpoint for criticism – if, at this point, a critic must make comparisons or else point out the opposites in order to get people to listen – or if there really is so little musical originality now that comparisons have simply become inevitable. As if everything is so similar that one would feel uncomfortable not mentioning similar artists. Guilty, even.
We've had a lot of similar sounding paragraphs popping up in Staff/Contrib (heck, even a few User) reviews lately. Disillusionment, much? Cheer up Sputnik!
That said, good to see you again Chan. The writing was ace. Even if it had nothing to do with 21. Or much of Adele, for that matter.
Digging: My Bloody Valentine - Loveless Digging: My Bloody Valentine - Loveless | | |
great review/blog post
Digging: Simian Mobile Disco - Unpatterns Digging: Simian Mobile Disco - Unpatterns
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all of your reviews I've read since you became emeritus have been like philosophical treatises on music
Digging: mewithoutYou - Ten Stories Digging: mewithoutYou - Ten Stories
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posd
love her voice
Digging: Strapping Young Lad - City Digging: Strapping Young Lad - City
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Chan is a philosophical man obviously.
Digging: Diablo Swing Orchestra - Pandora's Pinata Digging: Diablo Swing Orchestra - Pandora's Pinata
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
wow.
Digging: Gotye - Making Mirrors | | | Album Rating: 4
someone like you is best closer ever
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123 so hard
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
4567
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
someone like you is a perfect song
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Sweet write-up, chan, but not seeing how it's much of an album review.
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i know right being emeritus is very freeing
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
also might I add that performance was really hard to watch not because it was bad because she took that song so damn seriously
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dont know why you didnt just put this in a blog post where you could link to the video
Digging: Mount Eerie - Clear Moon Digging: Mount Eerie - Clear Moon
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chan, still winning sputnik
Digging: Perverse - The Iceman / Submerge
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So yeah this isn't a review at all
Digging: Kate Miller-Heidke - Nightflight | | | Album Rating: 4
I think I've changed my mind about 129 times as to which of the opener or closer I like best. I think I prefer the closer & it may just have to do with that performance a little more than I want it to.
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Music for fat, pubescent girls to get dumped to.
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great review/blog post [2]
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that last paragraph would've fit nicely in thebhoy's stream of consciousness blogs
Digging: Meshuggah - Koloss
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