Adele - We Have Spoken
Adele – 21
Adele’s recent unprecedented levels of success would lead one to assume that she must be writing cutting edge, yet universal, music and delivering it in a new and modern way. Let’s have an objective look as we listen to, and review, her latest album…
1. Rolling In The Deep
Oh this one! Recognise the chorus of course, so 21 begins. Choosing to opt for the urgent opener, full of bluesy restraint (think ‘Gimme Shelter’) the album begins with a run of the mill palm muted guitar figure that develops into a powerful chorus. The syncopated backing singing gives the song urgency and character - cleverly the higher harmony feathers between the sharp minor sixth and the major sixth; impressed. The middle 8 is very reminiscent of the Kt Tunstall/middle of the road sound from a few years ago, nothing particularly new here. However, the juxtaposition of a chorus that has quality and invention with the unusually amateur lyrics is striking. ‘Rolling In The Deep’ , a good title it may be, however ‘Think of me in the depths of your despair/Making a home down there as mine sure won’t be shared’ is almost as dreadful as meaningless drivel like ‘Count your blessings to find what you look for’. Just because it is said with conviction, it does not give the clumsy line meaning.
2. Rumour Has It
Impressive instrumentation and production which is reminiscent of Suzanne Vega’s 99.9 F° album, full of industrial and mechanical percussion. Melodically however, think Duffy, Kt Tunstall and again, that ‘middle of the road’ female bluesy singer-songwriter sound. Exemplified by ‘Black Horse and The Cherry Tree’ – which seems to encapsulate the generic sound of ‘safe’ female modern singer-songwriters. Again, not much development. The ‘Rumour has it!’ Backing singing comes tearing through, extremely catchy and really makes the song stand out: very good song-writing. Similarly, the sudden electric guitar flourishes are fantastic, also a very impressive chord progression in the middle section. Easily the highlight so far…
3. Turning Tables
Oh Dear. Awful open chords and horrendous lyrics make for a serious disappointment after the pleasant surprise of ‘Rumour Has It’. The opening couplet has to be heard to be believed – (record contract: revoked). Even nice violin flourishes can’t hide the fact that the song sounds uninspired and has no soul to it. This doesn’t mean to say that she isn’t trying to sing it with soul, or that she doesn’t sing the lyrics with conviction… but the song itself is unoriginal and a dirge. Quite simply, banal. The piano figure sounds as if it is lifted from the children’s computer game ‘The Sims’, or at best, a school teacher playing a pop-song, transcribed to the piano to impress the kids (and failing). Just because it’s melodramatic doesn’t mean it has more purpose than a more understated song. Sounds readymade for the X-Factor, complete with unnecessary vocal flourishes, showing off, to over compensate for a bad song. Adele appears unable to realize that a song sounds sadder if it is in a major key, instead her songs meander about in minor keys (failing even to resolve to a major key), sounding trite, boring and offensively obvious.
4. Don’t You Remember
Musically it seems like some rest bite. However, perhaps she should change her voice to suit the song? If indeed she is a great singer, it would be nice to hear a range of styles to see what her voice is capable of; perhaps she could try singing quietly, instead of using the generic warble of the modern empowered female which just sounds clumsy and irritating after a while. Again, the song has terrifyingly obvious lyrics, do we indeed have any original thoughts left? If we do, Adele sure doesn’t think we should sing about them. Instead, it’s back to that old predictable trudge through the pains of love. She’s having the same feelings of heartbreak that everyone feels, yet she’s not singing about them in a new way. By treading the safe and formulaic route, it is more likely that the majority of the record buying public can relate to it. That’s no replacement for an original talent. It’s a cheap and uninventive way to win over an audience. If Adele put as much effort into her lyric writing as she does her warbling, then maybe it might balance things up a bit. But what is constantly frustrating is that the tedious lyrics don’t merit the emotion put into them.
5. Set Fire To The Rain
I suppose that if you don’t have anything nice to say you shouldn’t say it at all, however… Why another minor key? Is it really necessary? Good syncopated drum-beat in the chorus, which is very sing-along and catchy, despite being a rather dull and lifeless melody. The chords/melody towards the chorus goes nowhere! No colour to it at all. Sounds like a throwaway stadium-rock-esque song. Just over halfway through it’s already grown to an overblown and melodramatic load of nothing. When did understatement go out of fashion?
6. He Won’t Go
The song kicks in with a nice kooky beat, which unfortunately reveals itself to be in yet another, minor key and similar chord progression. The song has a nice idea for chorus, lots of movement with sparse rhythms and emotive instrumentation. The major-seventh sounds easy and cool. Perhaps the first genuine groove on the record, it propels the song along with an understated energy that seems refreshing given the state of the album so far. However, there are questionable inflections on words to try and create a rhyme scheme which doesn’t particularly need to be laboured. Note: ‘is/risk’… ‘eeeeez/reeeeesk’.
7. Take It All
Fine, nice descending piano chord pattern. Sadly, concurrent with the majority of the album so far, it is predictable. Nice gospel backing singing and Bob-Dylan-y meter, for ‘Take it all/With my love’. Yet, the chorus needs to be stronger, as it comes across as too similar to the verse. The biggest problem so far just seems to be that the whole album seems to be about the same thing. Over and over and over again we hear about the singer’s romantic failures, said a multitude of ways, but ultimately with the same message. ‘21’ is a very unrewarding listen unless you are ready for a binge of ‘poor me’, equivalent to a late night gorge on a few kilos of Gateaux. Music is rarely this self-indulgent and selfish. Luckily for Adele, it seems most of the world feels unloved too. Her problem will come if people no longer want to sit around whining about it and instead, feel like acting in a positive manner.
8. I’ll Be Waiting
This song is very little more than a failed attempt at appearing groovy. It ends up sounding abysmal. As usual, everything is too literal and annoyingly direct. Including a little more metaphor in her songs would perhaps make the subject matter appear more interesting. As it is, there is very little mystery or atmosphere surrounding this collection of underdeveloped and overtly laboured songs.
9. One and Only
‘You’re the only one I want’… I gathered by now. Please give the audience the benefit of the doubt and stop signposting your songs as if you think the average age of your listener is under 5 years old. Yet again, Adele offers a string of offensively obvious chords and lyrics. After a while, listening to this album becomes genuinely upsetting, it makes life seem as formulaic as the construction of the songs themselves. What is the point in this counter-productive music? It is about as mind-opening as a dish of cold mash potato on a grey and drizzly morning. There is more life in a graveyard.
Have you ever noticed how a singer such as Adele, is always a little bit behind the beat? She can’t stick to a melody because there simply isn’t one – just whack some trite and mediocre chords behind a technically proficient rhythm section that give a faint impression of a ‘groove’ and let the singer’s vocals writhe around on top of the music, in an emotionless flurry of over-the-top strained warbling. All this gives the impression of a heartfelt song, yet we should refuse to be fooled.
10. Lovesong
From the beginning it is evident that a different songwriter is behind this song. The clue lies in the fact that this song actually has a melody line that the singer must adhere too, instead of standardly warbling around like a dying animal. Adele successfully does her job of sucking all the life out of an already average song before launching into what is thankfully the only remaining track on this bed-pan of forgettable bleating.
11. Someone Like You
And so it’s amateur hour at the piano again. The only way you can tell that it is the chorus is because she bellows it the octave higher. 1, 5, 6, 4 chords on the piano, the most over-used progression in this sort of song. The ‘I couldn’t fight it’ section is repulsive and the song is tedious. Presumably the arpeggios infer profundity? Who knows, or more significantly, who cares. (well…we do, because we could be bothered to write this!)
