Review Summary: Worthy of its Best Selling Accolades
It was always going to be a pop album that became the biggest selling album of the 21st century (if everybody thought the same as me it would’ve been a hardcore punk album, I suppose that’s the beauty of opinion, but it would be nice if more people felt like me…) and after finally letting this CD meet my cd player I have to concur with the masses and concede that ‘21’ is a deserving piece of work that has earnt the aforementioned accolade.
The album is carried from the first bars of ‘Rolling in the Deep’ through to the final refrain of the ballad farewell ‘Someone like you’ by the epic vocal performances of Adele, particularly when the songs hit the climax of the chorus, often providing goosebump moments as she crescendos effortlessly to the top of the phrase. ‘Turning Tables’ is my favourite example of this, a song fitting for a Broadway musical (albeit a good one) complete with a rising string section and a busy piano line that peeks more interest than your typical ‘don’t stop believing’ chord progression. She has a great knack for making her songs accessible and catchy whilst simultaneously impressing with her vocal chops that stand out from the girls from work singing on a night out.
Throughout the listening experience it is evident that Adele was born in the wrong year. She is fortunate the public had a thirst for a soul/Motown influenced pop record during her peak years, making up for her not being alive during a time when her heroes such as Etta James, Aretha Franklin and Dusty Springfield were dominating the chart. Her name deserves to be in the same sentence as these super Soul elders and many people would have her on their Mount Rushmore of female vocalists and I can understand why.
Adele would sound out of place without some fantastic musicians backing her, they provide a great platform for her to build her songs, particularly during the intros, when the instrumentation is bare. The intimate moments provide a good contrast to the previously mentioned ‘climb up a mountain and belt it out’ philosophy.
Make no bones about it, and excuse me for stating the obvious, but this is 100% a break up album. It wouldn’t be my go-to break up album if my misses dumped me. But I can understand why so many people are seeking comfort in this album. Due to this I don’t always feel madly into the songs lyrical content. Towards the end of the album, I was thinking ‘another one?! Again?!’ She could’ve done an upbeat song about the girls cheering her up by hitting the town and forgetting the ex.
If making this album was my responsibility there are many things I would be really happy with, the catchiness of the songs and the vocal performance in particular. Despite this I feel as though there was opportunities missed to lean into certain genres more, when a couple of choruses would be underwhelming because they sought out a pop formula. It almost felt like a cop out that we weren’t treated to some raw gospel, hip-hop or country music. ‘He won’t go’ sounded like it should have been a hip hop song, it started out with a cool drum beat and piano chords reminiscent to 90s hip hop, but the chorus felt like a pop cop out to me. A pop out. The producers flirted with gospel styles a lot on this album, and it worked often, but they should’ve taken more risks. Tracks like take it all needed more oooooo’s and aaaaahhhhh’s throughout in the backing vocals and ‘One and Only’ flirted with a tiny bit with a Hammond organ, I just felt it needed to be rawer, in your face and obnoxious. The production was too polished for my taste, they needed to get raw.
I know I said I loved the vocal performance, but I also thought that was too polished at times, Adele needed to find the extra growl in her voice like Etta as already mentioned and Brody Dalle to take some of the polish off when it was needed. Get gritty!
Overall, a fantastic album that deserves its success due to the performance of one of the most talented female singers in history. The songs are catchy, the singles are easy to sing-along to, but difficult to sing like Adele, which I believe is a good formula for an album. Personally, I found it too poppy when I wanted it to be grittier at times, more soulful, more raw, less polished and less produced.
******This review is an excerpt from my youtube channel dedicated to reviewing CDs. Https://www.youtube.com/@BurntDisc
