Adele - 21

by Charlotte Jarman
(kent)

The years best selling album so far, Adele has gone from mild obscurity to household name- all thanks to that performance of "Someone like you" on the Brits.

Now short-listed for the Mercury music prize, 21 is reaching dizzying heights.

The album tells the familiar tale of breakup and love lost, Adele's voice is thick with despair but is resigned to the fact that her love has moved on "I guess she gave you things I didn't give to you".

With Turning Tables the simplicity of the delicate piano makes the spine tingle while her turbo powered gospel voice is a recipe for heart ache; the subtle moments of the album are the most blissful.

But when the tempo picks up Adele spreads her wings and unleashes her voice especially on the stompy Rolling in the Deep. Which brings Aretha Frankiln's R.E.S.P.E.C.T to 2011 ("your gonna wish you never had met me")

21 has achieved that rare equilibrium of pleasing both the masses and the critics. However I don't think that 21 is up to the standard set by it's predecessor.

19 was a master class in writing an album that was both upbeat and in other places mellow, a pick and mix of blues, soul and old school rhythm and blues.

There wasn't so much mourning the loss of love as reveling in its bask.

19 was an 18th century cottage, each nook and cranny filled with different textures and tones. Upon each listen I found something new. Whereas 21 is more like a minimalist open plan apartment, one constant theme of heartbreak painted on every wall.

Maybe 21 will serve to be Adele's break up album, and as she goes on to produce a catalog of masterpieces 19 will be seen affectionately as the first album, before she got her heart broken.