First listen: Adele’s 25 a ‘brighter listen’ than its predecessor
By Ben Kelly
25 is undoubtedly the musical event of the year, and certain to fill stockings across the country this month. Needless to say, listeners haven’t been disappointed by Adele’s efforts, following her lengthy hiatus. Considering she tested out many co-writers in the years she worked on this – several of whom appear on the finished album – 25 is remarkably consistent.
It’s fun to hear Send My Love (To Your New Lover), with Max Martin and Shellbeck perfectly applying their hit factory skills to the Adele style, but some of the best moments are also the most intimate; like Remedy, in which she is accompanied simply on piano by co-writer Ryan Tedder, producing this album’s Turning Tables.
But, the sound of the album is generally brighter than 21. The recurring production sound is one of layered vocals, reverbs, dramatic drums and other tribal sounding effects (who needed Phil Collins anyway?), which runs through Water Under The Bridge, River Lea and Hello. The highlight of the whole record is surely When We Were Young, a soaring power ballad where Adele scales her highest notes and takes us to church. The track reflects the entire mood of the album, which sees her noting the point of maturity at which she has now arrived, while simultaneously thinking back to her life before fame.
“Everything changed me,” she croons sadly at one point, and you immediately think of the perils that surely come with meteoric fame. On Million Years Ago (which bears striking resemblance to Mariah Carey’s My All), she describes going back to where she grew up to find not that she has changed, but that everyone else has changed the way they see her; a lonely place to be. There’s also an acceptance of the vulnerability she has presented through her art. “To earn my stripes, I’ve had to pay, and bear my soul.”
If 25 suffers anywhere, it’s only from its great expectations – an unavoidable problem, considering the 30 million copies 21 sold. Your average female pop star would kill for a track like Love In The Dark, but it falls just a touch flat here, purely due to the high standards of its neighbouring tracks like All I Ask – the Bruno Mars co-write with a very satisfying pop key change.
Ending on the gloriously uplifting Sweetest Devotion, Adele pays tribute to her son, whose giggles are surely those heard on the track. “You will eternally be the one that I belong to.” It’s soppy, but after living through her pain on 21, it’s touching to feel she has finally found the love of her life on 25.
VERDICT: 9/10
25 is released this Friday, at which time everybody you’ve ever met will buy a copy.
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