Like millions of others, I lapped up “21”. After four years and inestimable replays of  “Rolling in the Deep”, “Someone Like You”, “Rumor Has it”, “Set Fire to the Rain” and “Turning Tables” – not to mention some other personal favorites from that album, like her sublime rendition of “Lovesong” – I’m overjoyed that Adele has graced us with her next and latest offering: “25”.

My pre-critical, visceral response to  “25” is that I love it. I have already listened to it so many times that my appreciation for it has progressed from the initial phase of falling in love with certain songs, to savoring  some of the other tracks I didn’t love quite as much at first. Many of the choruses and pre-choruses are playing in my head even as I write this ! There are so many songs on this album that are virtually custom made for someone who loves to sing and learn new songs. This is an entertaining assortment of thematically similar pop songs – songs of yearning, unrequited love, falling out of love, heartbreak and grief – that have come to be associated with Adele. It is a very good album, but it isn’t flawless, and I will address the aspects of it that left me wanting more, after I’m done celebrating the many wonderful things about it.

I can barely contain my reverence for  Adele’s glorious singing, so I’ll  limit myself to one paragraph in praise of  the tonal quality of her voice : Pristine and powerful.  Lush and lovely. Towering and tremendous. Booming enough to drown out everything else,  yet intimate enough to be speaking only to you. She transports you back to that time and that place and that person.   All this universally acknowledged magnificence is on full display in “25”.

My favorite song from the album is “Million Years Ago “. It has a timeless quality to it. It could have been playing on the radio in the 60s, sung by the legendary Dusty Springfield. It is wistful, nostalgic, reflective, and has a gorgeous melody. “Million Years Ago” also showcases Adele’s lovely lower range.

 

This is one of the songs that exemplifies the “old young person” style of songwriting that is common to both, Adele and Lana del Rey. Adele, at 27, sings lines like “That was a million years ago” and “That reminds me of when we were young”. On Hello, she sings, “We both know we’re running out of time”. Lana del Rey, on “Young and Beautiful” sings ,“ I’ve seen the world, done it all, had my cake now”. There’s a world-weariness to these lyrics, a sense of pining for something from the remote past, when in fact, the past could not possibly have been that remote. This quality that characterizes a lot of Adele’s songwriting broadens the appeal of many of these songs across age groups, as lines like “Life was a party to be thrown, but that was a million years ago” are universally relatable. One could feel that way at twenty-five, at forty, at seventy.

Speaking again of timelessness, this album has songs that would not have been out of place in the 60s, and some others, like “Water Under the Bridge” that could so easily be playing on an 80s radio station.  I was reminded of so many singers from different eras. This, to me, is the other factor that contributes to Adele’s multi-generational appeal.  “When We Were Young” could have been a Carpenters song, particularly the lilting line “You look like a movie, you sound like a song”. “All I Ask”, written by Bruno Mars, could of course have been one of the songs on an album of his, but it also reminded me of a Michael Jackson ballad. It is also arguably the most spectacularly well sung song on the album, managing to reveal a subtly but powerfully different quality to Adele’s singing.  “Sweetest Devotion” could have been a song on a Whitney Houston album in the 80s. “Send my love to your new lover” , described by one reviewer as “Adele by way of Taylor Swift” is possibly the most contemporary sounding song. It is catchy and radio-friendly. Its arrangement, too, is much more like mainstream pop than most of the other tracks: the balance between the vocals and the instrumentation, the use of voices, the  inflections ( luh-uh-ver, be-eh-eh-etter).

I love “Million Years Ago”, “All I Ask”, “River Lea” and “Water Under the Bridge” most of all, and then all the others.

 

The album has only given and will continue to give me hours and hours of listening and singing pleasure, but there are a few things I would have wanted more of: for one, I wish that there had been one classic cover on this album. On Adele’s first album, “Make You Feel My Love” introduced many from a generation unacquainted with the Dylan classic to that great love song, and “Lovesong” on 21 inspired many.  I would have loved to hear another classic interpreted by Adele, perhaps another Bond song, or a classic love song.

 

 

The album, although very good, could have been more well rounded in the sense of thematic organization and storytelling. Most songs are about unrequited love, yearning, nostalgia, going back to her roots, and then the last song “Sweetest Devotion” is a joyful song about her love for her son. The album could have had a more well conceptualized narrative arc . I do think it could have told more of a story, rather than simply seeming like many similarly themed songs put together, ending with one that captures a different mood.

 

Adele’s first studio album, “19”, had jazz-influenced songs, some of which were playful and fun, like the wonderful “Right as Rain”, and some of which had an indie feel, like “Daydreamer”. As a devout Adele listener, I miss some of the musical sophistication and complexity of those songs, which she seems to have moved away from in “25”, in favor of the mass appeal and simpler chord progressions of power ballads.

 

Although the lyrics on “25” are far superior to, and more elegant than many pop lyrics,  for someone whose singing and music are as timeless as Adele, I would have loved for her lyrics to be even more poetic. In pop music, there are songs whose words simply and directly convey events and accompanying emotions (“I miss you , I love you, I wish I were in your arms, I wanted to hold you but you didn’t want to be held” etc). The simple storytelling or diary-like content of these songs makes them relatable. Sometimes, such lyrics have sufficient originality, but not always, because “I love you,I miss you, I wish I were in your arms” have been sung about a million times in those exact words. There are other kinds of songs that attempt to tell stories in a very fresh way, sometimes by playing with metaphor and allegory, sometimes by reflecting  on life and love in a more philosophical way, sometimes by focusing on an interesting aspect of the story. Songs of this kind include “Blackbird” by Paul McCartney (“Blackbird singing in the dead of night/ Take these broken wings and learn to fly/All your life you were only waiting for this moment to arise”), “Let the River Run” by Carly Simon (“Let the River Run/ Let All the Dreamers Wake the Nation/Come, the new Jerusalem”),   “ Piano Man “ by Billy Joel (“ They share a drink called loneliness but its better than drinking alone”)  “Sounds of Silence” by Simon and Garfunkel , songs by Bob Dylan and Joan Baez ( On “Love Song to a Stranger” she sings ,”If Love means forever expecting nothing in return, I hope I’ll be given another whole lifetime to learn”).  I am drawn to songs with this kind of poetry, this obvious desire to say things in a very new way,  songs whose lyrics are slightly mystical. On “25” there are some beautiful lines such as  “Give me a memory I can use” (from “All I Ask”), and “Million Years Ago” and “River Lea” do tell their stories in refreshing and new ways. However, there’s also a fair amount of direct telling,  and lines that aren’t strikingly  new or original  such as ” “I want every single piece of you” and “It feels like we’re oceans apart”.

The  songs with these direct lyrics on “25” are good, but personally, I would love to hear lyrics that have more of that mystical quality, more metaphor, more originality, while retaining the rawness and authenticity . More of the “I grew up by the River Lea/ There was something in the water/ Now that something’s in me/ Oh I can’t go back but the reeds are growing out of  my fingertips “ ( from “River Lea “) and less of the “Please don’t fall apart/I can’t face your breaking heart” (from “Love in the Dark”). Then again, this is just my personal hope from one of my favorite contemporary artists!

All in all, though,  I love this album, and its release was one of the many benisons of this year. I’m grateful for “25”, until the next time that Adele says “Hello” again!