Adele - 21 - Release Date - January 21, 2011

There is no sophomore slump here. Adele's second studio album is outstanding. She's been a part of this class of British female artists making noise on the American pop music scene(Leona Lewis, Kate Nash, Duffy, etc.), but with this release, Adele really separates herself from the pack. This artist's voice is larger than life. She belts out these heavy and heartfelt ballads, all while still maintaining a certain poise. It's brilliant and magnetic. "21" which I assume is named for her age when she finished it (succeeding 2008's "19"), has a certain familiar quality about it. It's not unoriginal, it just has a way of getting into your head and staying with you. Adele covers "Lovesong" by The Cure and perfectly captures the track's signature haunting, mellow style, but still manages to make it her own. For the most part, these are love songs and they're sad, but so beautifully tragic. The Grammy award winning singer experiments on this record a little more with some different and more invasive percussion on tracks like "Rolling In The Deep" and "Rumor Has It", but there still is plenty of the soft piano driven sound that won her praise from critics and fans on both sides of the Atlantic.

RedletterDaydream

Past Works:
19

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Track:
One and Only