Album Review: Adele - 21

Adele - 21

OK, so I'm a bit late to this record. Having already shifted 1.6 gazillion copies of 21 including a record breaking run at number One in the UK album chart, Adele is arguably the hottest property in British music right now.

Now, other than the excellent Chasing Pavements, I can't say I was a particular fan of her debut release, 19. I wasn't therefore expecting to be blown away by 21, despite its gargantuan sales figures. However, after several listens, I would suggest that the reason that 21 has been so successful may be that it is actually quite good.

The singles are a great place to start and are, by some distance, the highlight of this album. Million selling number one Someone Like You is, if you strip out the 'annoyance from hearing it on the radio a million times' a beautiful and heartbreaking pop ballad, whilst the excellent Rolling In The Deep gets 21 off to a riproaring start. My favourite though is the powerful Set Fire To The Rain; a simmering, climactic piece of superb songwriting.

The rest of the album never quite reaches these heights, but in the Dusty Springfield inspired Rumour Has It and the lovely Turning Tables there is plenty to like here. 21 does drift a bit as it goes along - some of the songs end up merging into one piece of listenable background noise - and I'm not sure about the cover of the Cure's Lovesong, but all in all it's a polished piece of work and there's no doubting Adele's considerable vocal talents.

It's by no means the best album I have ever heard, but it's easy to see why Adele has become so popular.