REVIEW: ADELE - 30

4/5

30 For 30.

Hello again, from the other side. Adele is back and this is the only time any of us born around the 1980's have looked forward to '30'. Here's to the biggest album of the year...and maybe her career history, rolling in the deep. Performed on the worlds biggest stage like London's Royal Albert Hall and the Los Angeles Griffith Observatory overlooking the Hollywood sign in La La land for the city of stars in the same damn week. All whilst someone pops the question with an Adele assisted proposal for a couple getting together like Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling characters.  Not to mention the biggest Oprah interview since Meghan and Harry ("you get an exclusive, you get an exclusive!"). She's come a long way since those Tottenham salad days, spurred on the hottest pop career not giving Swift 'Red' notice like Taylor's version. From telling you never mind, she'll find someone like you. To giving us the 'Skyfall' of Daniel Craig, James Bond themes like 'Happier Than Ever' Billie Eilish for 'No Time To Die' for 007. What more could the incredible voice give us in the same weekend we take in the Aretha movie 'Respect'? Give Adele her A.L.L. D.U.E. too, because we are in the presence of a GOAT, going through an album worth of darkness, divorce and drink. All before she comes out the other side, sporting a new look courtside at a Laker game with Rich Paul, the agent to the stars like King James. But this queen has the throne now. And as she's stacking up the ages with classic albums ('19', '21', '25'). Can you imagine just how even more legendary her legacy will be decades from now when she's an old soul with albums like '42', '54' and more? Still dancing at '60'. Multiplying like Ed Sheeran mathematics. Adele has even changed the game by having Spotify remove their shuffle button as the default option when playing albums, because after all in this ever-changing industry, "we don’t create albums with so much care and thought into our track listing for no reason. Our art tells a story and our stories should be listened to as we intended." Amen. So 30 for 30 like ESPN she can now be seen on courtside, let's go track-for-track like we always do it this time. 

Loneliness is about to be consoled...even if everyone does start crying after the first few seconds of the first track. And that's guaranteed after saying goodbye to the opening 'Strangers By Nature' with the eulogy, "I'll be taking flowers to the cemetery of my heart/For all of my lovers in the present and in the dark/Every anniversary, I'll pay respects and say I'm sorry/For they never stood a chance as if they could/When no one knows what it's like to be us." As assured as her having another arm load of gramophones at the next Grammy's as she rock-a-by's the competition like a baby. Then she all makes it 'Easy On Me' like a Commodore Sunday morning for this soul session of a stunning, soaring new single like the storm of colour that comes in during the leaving home, drive to freedom of the video. Sheets of music swirling around all the happy couples she drives past to her own changed lane destiny. All for someone who has gone from black and white to living colour on her perfect portrait album portraits that she did and does like the numbers. Putting this new classic next to 'Somebody Like You' and 'Hello' like Lionel Richie as one of her greatest hits. "There ain't no gold in this river/That I've been washing my hands in forever," she sings on the first sing she wrote after her divorce, in 2018. Easy money. And how about the country soul of Chris Stapleton on the Target and Japanese bonus edition of this LP that also features the heart-breaking 'Can't Be Together' and 'Wild Wild West' (no, not that one)? Because this album affords more. It could even save a few lives. She says so herself. "Let time be patient. Let pain be gracious." This album is full of more poetic affirmations than 'Milk and Honey', Rupi. 

Powerful. Emotional. Atmospheric. Heart-breaking. Beautiful. Unconditional devotion. What more can we say about 'My Little Love', the dedication to her child? Except that it's the biggest piece of her heart and maybe the best song on the album. Six minutes of every emotion and vocal introduction as she talks to hers and us as such. "My little love/I see your eyes widen like an ocean/When you look at me so full of my emotions." "My little love/Tell me, do you feel the way my past aches/When you lay on me, can you hear the way my heart breaks." There's just so much lasting lyrics here to hear that will leave an indelible imprint and your heart and a stranger in solidarity of you've ever gone through this type of aggravating anxiety in separation. And the chorus." "I'm holdin' on (Barely)/Mama's got a lot to learn (It's heavy)/I'm holdin' on (Catch me)/Mama's got a lot to learn (Teach me)." It's more than a hook. It's that sinking feeling in need of a line. It's the type to make you 'Cry Your Heart Out' ("I created this storm/It's only fair that I have to sit in its rain") like the next track or the type of rivers Timberlake and Bublé sang about, drowning in desperation. 'Oh My God'. This smoky, smouldering soul for the jazz clubs and now the pop hip-hop heads is heaven sent like the spirits from cigarette ash and vinyl dust. Singing "because my heart can pound like thunder" on the acoustic foot stomper 'Can I Get It', Adele gives us "the good, the bad, the ugly and divine" on a song that has the spurs for a wild west hoedown. "We're in love with the world but the world just wants to bring us down/By putting ideas in our head that corrupt our hearts somehow", she laments for this age of angst on 'I Drink Wine' which you should accompany with a glass of red. Even staying at home with a bottle in the fridge, it's the anthem to take your night off ice. Inviting all the Lady Gaga 'Pinot Grigio Girls'. Singing along, "why am I obsessing over things I can't control" (daily), "why am I seeking approval from people I don't even know" (triggered). All as we yearn for the one we long for that will be as true as, "everyone wants something, you just want me." Now that's the ultimate "find somebody who" meme. And look at her and 'All Night Parking' with Erroll Garner for the inspired pit-stop of an interlude. There's no woman like Adele Adkins on 'Woman Like Me' over the soul stirring strings of Lianne La Havas like guitars for another great Brit. Now 'Hold On' ("you are still strong"), we're not going home yet Hall and Oates or Drake 'Certified Lover Boy' is Adele's album of the year. And most of the industry not on 'Donda' like Kanye. But not anymore. Its '30' and everything else below now. 'To Be Loved' is to be one with the heart of this album and a Donny homage. Even for those who think 'Love Is (Still Just) A Game' in closing, channelling Amy. Don't ghost. The spirit of this one soars. Even after three decades and more than ten years since she released her first at '19', Adele is still the one. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Playlist Picks: 'Strangers By Nature', 'Easy On Me', 'My Little Love'.