Weekly > Reviews
Adele - 19
Much has been said about the young lassie from London, from the BBC bigging her up to be a star for 2008, to the other side of the coin and many inches within the music rags and sites showing their displeasure in what they see as XL exploiting a niche left by another lassie of the name Amy.
Personally, I don’t buy into all this talk of pigeon holes and comparisons, as each girl deserves to be taken on their own merit. Its a poor show when its seen that if someone sets the bar, anything following which is in a similar field, may be seen as inferior. If so, I wouldn’t have bothered buying a single bloody guitar album since O.K Computer.
So we start with Daydreams, a lovely soft piece accompanied by Miss Adkins keeping it nice and simple with her cracking voice, as she explains what she see’s/may see any in possible male suitors.
However, the tempo steps up a gear on Best For Last, as she cries with her claws out ‘And though I’m trying my hardest you go back to her’ to the back drop of a nodding piano rift and jazzie bass, which just proves to us all that being nice (most of the time) gets you nowhere.
Although I’ll probably get sick of hearing it at some point, Chasing Pavements for me is so far the single of the year (I know its February), which for someone so young is sang with some depth and soul. It’s produced and arranged that well that that you feel you’ve known it for years. Well done Mr Ronson.
Crazy For You is one girls tale of uncontrollable love that comes across a bit naive and I don’t feel that it fits well, possibly a bit of a filler without much substance. Saying that, Melt My Heart To Stone is just amazing, with sweet layers leading to Adele crooning ‘You say my name like there could be an us’ but then softly breaks it to the listener that ‘I best tidy up my head, I’m the only one in love’. Quality.
- Adele
- 19 (2008)
- Category: Album
- Label: XL Recordings
- Reviewed by: Keachy
- Published on: 24 Feb 2008
- Comments: 0
- Beat Surrender Rating:
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Add to favouritesThe second half of the album is where you start to feel that it could have been much better as the songs start to pass you by even after listening to the album for the fifth time, with the theme of teenage love starting to get a bit repetitive on tracks First Love and My Same. Again the Dylan cover Make You Feel My Love, just seems lazy and misplaced.
Being a northerner, I haven’t got a clue about the goings on in the London area but final track Hometown Glory could have been written about any community, suburban area or council estate within these shores, with it’s shimmering piano its beautifully done, simple and an excellent closing piece.
My final thoughts are that the record in a whole is a very good first effort from someone that is just still a teenager with much of her life in front of her. So what if so much was expected due to the hype, what did we expect, a masterpiece or another benchmark for us to keep people in their place. It may be a bit patchy at the later stages, but what there is here is a good debut album that’s sets a strong foundation to be absolutely great in the coming years, and lets not forget the girl is just 19.
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