Adele – 19

I figured, given her popularity, I’d better see what all the fuss was about as regards Adele. And you know what, I’m probably gonna be the odd man out here, but I thought this album wasn’t so hot.

Oh don’t get me wrong, the songs are soulful and well done. I have no issue with the music. It’s Adele’s voice that drove me nuts more often than not. Sometimes it worked, and I said hell yeah! And other times it had that breaking wannabe r&b crap that people think is powerful singing and I just think it sounds like shit. There are tracks where she nails it smoothly, and others where she messes with the timing in her singing, and it all sounds crammed in and clunky.

She’s too harsh to be Norah Jones, not dirty enough to be Amy Winehouse,  and there ain’t nobody soars like Aretha. Adele’s there, but it sounds forced and, sometimes, atonal. I dunno, this is her first record, maybe she gets better on later efforts. Not that I could do better, I’m just saying.

I didn’t hate this, maybe half of the tracks were ok enough, but the rest just gave me a headache.