Adele – 21

Insert chosen superlative here:

When Adele recently visited the BBC Radio One studio for a Live Lounge performance, she was given not 5-10 minutes, but 30 minutes. She performed six songs and brought a predominantly male team of producers to tears. Her live performance of “Someone Like You” has since been played in heavy rotation over her current hit “Rolling in the Deep”. So, yeah, Radio One DJs – especially Fearne Cotton (whose voice alone deserves its own blog) and Greg James – are absolutely smitten with her. AND YOU SHOULD BE, AS WELL!

This album still allows her powerful voice to carry every track and her smoky, bluesy style is still there, but 21 takes some risks, with more vulnerable themes and increased range from one song to the next.

Her lyrics are strong, her voice is incredible, the arrangements are lovely and brilliant and complex and heart-wrenching and…ahem… Anyway, faster, more driving rock pieces, combined with more stripped down and subdued classical pieces make this album, dare I say, better than the last, and better than a lot of music I’ve heard in a very long time. And remember: expert here. *points to self* Relax, I’m not about to compare Adele with the Spice Girls.

Which brings me to:

British music is back, baby! I mean, Florence + the Machine, Ellie Goulding, Plan B, Mumford… I think a pattern may be emerging. Wait for it. WAIT FOR IT… Okay, it has EMERGED.

Well no wonder!

Newsflash! Rick Rubin (Johnny Cash, Jay-Z, etc.) co-produced this album! Sorry peeps, it took me over a week to read the liner notes. =)

The essentials:

• Set Fire To The Rain
• Someone Like You
• Rumour Has It
• One And Only (Which is honest and beyond heartbreaking, but it is also one of a handful of tracks that switches gears by completely changing the tune half way through. Genius!)

The skip-if-you-want-to-save-money-on-iTunes’:

• Take It All
• Don’t You Remember