We live in a world of ‘Adele’. Adele has released a new single and album and Adele has been inundating us with ‘Adele’.
Although the inundation, or rather the ‘promo’ period, seems to have slowed somewhat as possibly there aren’t any media/promo outlets left that haven’t overdosed on Adele and ‘Adele’ all while informing us repeatedly that Adele and ‘Adele’ are both so talented, brilliant, wonderful etc ad nauseum.
Perhaps there will be a second wave of Adele/’Adele’ as Christmas nears and our state of Adele/’Adele’ can continue unabashed into 2022. Who knows, will Adele/’Adele’ nudge Her Maj out of her after Christmas dinner slot and give us all the world according to Adele/’Adele’ instead?
Before Kaleidoscope is accused of heinous treason for even daring to think Adele/ ‘Adele’ are anything but flawless, some background.
Adele is one of the greatest singers the UK has produced in modern times. Her previous albums are some of the best any artist has produced in modern times – well, since the 70s anyway. Adele songs pepper my ipod, Spotify and car playlists. Adele is right up there with the very best.
But, the fact is Adele’s latest album isn’t as good as her others… and this time ‘Adele’ the persona, the star, the image has left Adele the glorious singer behind.
Adele 30 is no more than a fair album, with one or two high spots, one of them, incredibly, in a crushingly awful, self-indulgent number with her son about the pain of her divorce.
The amazing, and well deserved, global success of Adele’s previous albums was built on the simplicity of her stand-out voice, mainly with piano, and powerful, memorable songs. Adele 30 breaks with that style and is packed out with R&B-ish and other forgettable numbers which do not do her immense talent justice.
It is interesting that her pre-album release single, Easy On Me, is one which would fit seamlessly into any of her other albums. Fair play to Adele for doing something new, it was time she broke out into a new style, but this isn’t it and perhaps she and the industry behind her were not brave enough to show us the new stuff before they had laid the path out to new album sales with a crack of the old.
This time the overall product Adele has produced is disappointing. And, as if to counter that, Adele has catapulted into full-blown ‘Adele’ the megastar. Until now we have worshipped at the altar of Adele the singer – that voice! Now, we have been force-fed ‘Adele’ the idea, the uber-celeb big enough to sit down with Oprah, the superstar a celeb-packed London Palladium ‘audience with’ can sit in awe with while asking her inane questions and gibbering at how precious ‘Adele’ is.
Never mind the ‘Never Mind The Music’… just let the image do the business instead, at least until the hermetically-sealed nothing but the positive promo-period is over when ‘Adele’ can drop out of the lime-light and start counting the royalties.
Next time, whenever that is… Adele 35, 40, 50?… let’s have more Adele, less ‘Adele’. Less style, more substance. Less celeb, more unique singer. Less ‘an audience with’ full of sycophantic celebs, more real gigs. Less image, more reality.
Less Oprah, more Ommph!
Adele 30 - www.adele.com