Adele - 30
Pop/Soul – Released November 19, 2021 – 12 songs, 58 mins
LUNDI
Adele needs no introduction and calling her an icon feels like you’re understating her impact. 30 is the most anticipated album in years. Let’s dig in.
The star of the show is no doubt Adele’s iconic voice. Is she the greatest female vocalist ever? That’s a loaded question no doubt but surely she doesn’t feel out of place when stacked against the historical greats like Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Celine Dion and Aretha Franklin. Let’s just say she keeps good company and she further cements her place amongst those greats on 30. If you need proof sit back and listen to her soar on To Be Loved. It is simply beautiful.
To support her vocals, Adele worked with a variety of producers on 30 and it certainly shows. The album is eclectic in styles with a mixture of jazz, soul and pop where each song is significantly different. Nothing feels overly repetitive and each track allows her voice to shine. Particularly Oh My God and Easy on Me stand out amongst the rest. Some moments however like the whistling on I Can Get It or the backing vocals on All Night Parking make the album feel a little over produced.
On 30 Adele is direct and personal with the subject matter. This results in very passionate and heartfelt songs but also causes parts of the album to drag. There is no doubt Adele is proud of the final product but no music lover is clamouring to their friends that you just have to hear a two minute long Adele voicemail. It strikes as if certain touches on the album were necessary for her to overcome her own emotional struggles in spite of the the final musical product. It’s an honourable yet flawed approach.
30 isn’t a sonic appeal to the masses but a heartfelt and wholesome collection of songs. It’s doesn’t quite hit like her previous works but when this all time great sings you drop everything and listen.
Overall Rating: 8.0/10
Favourite Song: To Be Loved
ROZ
Adele and using her age as an album title; a classic duo. Six years removed from her last album, Adele is back with 30 - perhaps her best effort to date. Rather than distancing her music career from her separation and eventual divoce of husband Simon Konecki, she instead harnesses her emotions and allows her listeners to peer through the looking glass, to catch a glimpse of her personal life and the struggles that accompany her within it.
30 stands out from Adele’s previous efforts by showcasing a diversity of genres and thereby refusing to lean completely upon its greatest strength: Adele’s powerful and unmatched singing voice. Rendering the services of Greg Kurstin (producer for the likes of Foo Fighters, Beck, Paul McCartney and Adele’s own hit sing Hello), as well as other extremely talented artists such as Ludwig Göransson (longtime collaborator of Childish Gambino and movie scores for films such as Tenat and Black Panther), 30 dips its toes in not only Adele's usual pop and jazz roots but also lofi hiphop (All Night Parking), reggaeton/dancehall (Cry Your Heart Out) and even incorporates a stadium rock ballad in Oh My God, with it’s fantastic groove and clap/snare combination leading the charge throughout.
Lyrically, the songwriting pens a formal letter to Adele’s young son and goes into detail about her issues with her (now ex) husband that ultimately led to their divorce. The lead single, Easy On Me, is absolutely fantastic (and broke the world record for most streamed song in 24 hours at 24 million listens, god damn), while songs such as My Little Love and Woman Like Me get into the nitty gritty details; the former including recorded conversations between herself and her son. Adele lays it all out for her audience and by the end of the week I felt as though I knew exactly how the dynamics and downward spiral of her relationship actually unfolded. You shouldn’t have been so damn lazy and complain so much, Simon. Now you’re getting shit-talked on one of the biggest releases by one of the best voices in the music industry - tough luck, mate.
A lot of critics may consider this “more of the same” when it comes to the singer, however to me 30 has Adele in her most vulnerable state yet. While it does contain the common themes of her past albums (namely heartbreak and regret), 30 humanizes the singer in a way that her previous albums could not. Experimenting with a variety of genres and led by her amazing vocal talents, this album really is Adele at her best.
Overall Rating: 8.0/10
Favourite Song: Easy On Me
REID
Generational talent. Once in a lifetime voice. Phrases that come to mind when you think of Adele. Her rise to fame is well documented. 21 vaulted her into the Hollywood stratosphere with Rolling In The Deep and Someone Like You. She followed that up brilliantly with 25 and mega-hit, Hello. I’ve never dug into anything beyond those songs so let’s give 30 a go.
Before dropping 30, Adele did a tell-all interview with Vogue. Worth the read.
She is quoted as saying ‘There isn’t a bombastic ‘Hello’. But I don’t want another song like that. That song catapulted me in fame to another level that I don’t want to happen again.’ Well, she failed at that. In typical pre-release fashion, she dropped Easy On Me several weeks early and fans everywhere rejoiced as their saviour had returned. She then performed an Oprah special, Adele One Night Only, At L.A.’s Griffith Park Observatory in front of an A-List crowd. A jaw-dropping venue, matching the performance delivered by the Britain. Teetering the line between album promotion and ‘too much fame’ must be a challenge. If you felt a smidgen of sarcasm in there, your spidey senses are correct.
The strengths of 30 lie in Easy On Me and the middle. Cry Your Heart Out, Oh My God, Can I Get It, I Drink Wine and All Night Parking are all jams. Adele continues to crush the piano ballads and backs it up with fun, feel good tracks. While her vocals deliver in all songs, the rest drag on too long for me and are uninteresting.
30 is exactly what I expected. Adele’s voice is next-level good. It’s a treat to listen to. She so eloquently chronicles intimate details of her life like fame, divorce and motherhood in a compilation of ballads and upbeat hits. But all art has its intended audience and ultimately, it won’t frequent this guy’s playlist moving forward.
Overall Rating - 7.0/10
Favourite Song - Easy On Me