⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5 Stars
There are few artists with the vocal presence of Adele. She is up there with Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye and really close to Whitney Houston in her prime. Her ability to interpret and deliver music with raw emotions separates her from her contemporaries.
Her latest album ’30’ is her part therapy, part confessional and full ‘the baddest’ inter alia. Her main collaborators are Greg Kurstin, Ludwig Göransson, Max Martin, and Tobias Jesso Jr.
The project comes a few months after her divorce from Simon Konecki. She said she “went to hell and back” during the divorce in an interview with Zane Lowe on Apple Music.
“The 30 and 40 years olds are all committing to themselves and doing therapy, thats my vibe.” she laments not being bothered by the TikTok music era.
The album released by Melted Stone under exclusive license to Columbia Records Adele take shots at past situations but says there is no love lost, and she even lives across the road from Simon as they raise their son.
Ahead of the album’s release 500 thousand vinyl copies were pressed which is unprecedented in a streaming market but Adele is no ordinary artist. The cover is simply her looking to the east rocking a pressed blonde in front of a blurry aqua green backdrop. Grab your towels, we are in for a ride.
“I’ll be taking flowers to the cemetery of my heart” she whispers on the opening song “Strangers By Nature”. A 1900s ballad sound reminiscent of Nat King Cole. This is music for us, the 30 plus year olds. Innocent love is fun but we who have loved, lost and ready to love again make no pretenses. ’30’ is music for the battle field of love.
The album eases into ‘Easy On Me’, the current number 1 Billboard Hot 100 song for four weeks in a row. It is a graceful song for the rest of us but Simon has to listen to Adele’s crooning sad ballads for the next year on every radio station, knowing too well the back stories to every song. He should consider writing a book to get a few things of his chest.
I had good intentions
And the highest hopes
But right now
That probably doesn’t even show.
Sad songs sell, and this album has 12 of them, one for every month of the year.
‘My Little Love’ is a mother’s conversation with a child who is dealing with a father no longer in the house.
“I love your dad because he gave you to me,” a quotable for every single mother with questions to answer.
“Mama has got a lot to learn, teach me” she sings, she snorts, she sniffles. These raw emotions mixed and mastered with humming, drums and piano sounds, Jesus Christ Adele must you be so dramatic? She is good, really good. You can tell she knows exactly who the audience is- women, but not just any woman, Adele’s performs Stanislavski style for the crowd of distressed mothers figuring out life after separation.
The song’s naturalism makes it hard to listen to twice.
Moving on to the next!
‘Cry Your Heart Out’ is changes the mood to upbeat showgirl, but still sad. It experiments with Jazz and reggae strings. With writing help from Adkins & Greg Kurstin and the song’s syncopations by Chris “Daddy” Dave gives it front runner for best song on the album.
“When I walk in a room I’m invisible
I feel like a ghost
All my friends keep on telling me that this feeling won’t last
I can’t get no relief I’m so tired of myself
I swear I’m dead in the eyes
I have nothing to feel no more
I can’t even cry.”
It feels like the music version of “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf” by Ntozake Shange. I cried in the theatre when I watched Tyler Perry’s screenplay adaptation.
Side note, If Adele should pause her own self importance and loan her voice to the stories of women who have suffered oppression in a racist and sexist society she’d perhaps find greater purpose.
On ‘Oh My God’ Adele sings;
Wish that I would let you break my walls
But I’m still spinning out of control from the fall
Boy you give good love I won’t lie
It’s what keeps me coming back even though I’m terrified
Shakespeare wish he had Adele, Greg Kurstin & Julian Burg to score ‘Taming Of The Shrew’.
‘Can I Get it’ is an alternative pop song and one of the the more obvious hits. This days when MTV played alternative songs mainly casted by white guys with guitars over their shoulders. She makes singing easy, thats her magic.
‘I Drink Wine’ is her introspective bar tune.
“I don’t know anybody that is truly satisfied” says the wealthy singer, who is now with super sports agent Rich Paul.
“I hope I learn to get over myself, stop trying to be somebody else so we can love each other for free, everybody was something, you just want me” is instagram caption for the 30 year olds.
Maybe if Adele on her next album she sang “We Are The World”, her cause wold become greater than herself.
Artistic choices aside, she finds love on the interlude “All Night Parking”. The song sounds like an Erykah Badu cut.
“I don’t know how you got through to me (I’m so cold)
It’s all happening so easily (like oh my god)” she confess.
Maybe it’s the way you remind me of (where I come from)
Or how you make me feel beautiful (and then some)
The sight of you is dramatic
One glimpse and I panic inside
I get lost in our hours
Cause you possess powers I can’t fight
That’s why I dream about you
All night long
Happy songs are not her niche.
“Complacency is the worst trait to have, are you crazy?
You ain’t ever had ain’t ever had a woman like me
It is so sad a man like you could be so lazy
Consistency is the gift to give for free and it is key
To ever keep to ever keep a woman like me”.
The drums, the background, the reverb, and the repetitive piano work on ‘Hold On’ comes together with her voice to create audio cinema.
“Hold on
You are still strong
Love will soon come
Just hold on”
Nowadays every song needs a music video or TikTok challenge to accompany it but with all the songs on ’30’, you can see the music.
‘To Be Loved’ gives Jackie Wilson song of the same name a run for his money. Her version would also be perfect for Prince Akeem to sing when Lisa Mcdowell decides to give him a chance. If you don’t get that reference you are too young to listen to Adele.
To be loved and love at the highest count
Means to lose all the things I can’t live without
Let it be known that I will choose to lose
It’s a sacrifice
But I can’t live a lie let it be known
Let it be known that I tried
With help from producer Tobias Jesso Jr those words are songwriting gold. Her classic inspirations and strained vocal technique adds to the soul of the track.
“That love is a game for fools to play
And I ain’t fooling
What a cruel thing
To self-inflict that pain” sums up the album perfectly.
The monolithic theme of the album makes it seems bit long although it’s only twelve songs.
Why do we listen to Adele and her sad love stories over and again? ’30’ is a painfully spectacular album that outclasses all her peers. With a perfect 5 star, it is a classic showcase of music from the heart.
