Here we see the reflection of Gill’s tastes more than an impartial and honest take on the album there are objectively too many Adele-isms laden throughout the record to classify 25 as “designed by committee” (the aforementioned phrase structure, the intentional added burr behind repetitive high notes, the chord constructions which echo the building blocks of 21, the reverb techniques in the production, the execution of its subject matter, and so on). It’s likewise with the negativists: citing the production of Ryan Tedder and Bruno Mars, Andy Gill of the Independent writes that the songs on 25 sound “a little too much like they had been designed by committee-which, on reflection, is probably exactly what those industry types were so eagerly awaiting.” As such, Dolan’s phrase says more about his wishes for the record than the record itself. Such a claim is immediately undermined by what follows: not just a guitar, but a guitar stomped into the background by a sampled drum beat Dolan uses the occurrence to suggest that the artist exerted command over her work, but the example itself belies the truth of production, where there is undeniably more than “just the guitar.” It shows, instead, a compromise between artist and producer, proudly put on display, even if one did win out over the other. In fact, the blogosphere’s responses are so personal that often they have little to do with the objective facts surrounding the actual music.Ĭonsider how Jon Dolan of Rolling Stone writes, “Throughout 25, there's a deeper sense of artistic command,” then immediately states, by way of example, that “in a great, intimate bit before the start of “Send My Love (To Your New Lover),” she issues orders to the guys in the studio: ‘Just the guitar.’”
Yes, for some reason, Adele has evoked very personal responses, and this is especially clear in both the critiques and the plaudits. One could safely say at least four million people in the United States alone have heard 25 without streaming it.Īt this point, the question of music criticism becomes somewhat irrelevant, not because it’s meaningless, but because we have undoubtedly moved into the analysis of a genuine pop culture phenomenon-something that goes beyond music and touches the very heart of a collective and societal narrative. And, if you consider piracy venues, the number of people who’ve sampled 25 has to be larger. The era of that kind of massive, singular recommendation is simply gone, for many self-evident reasons.Īnd so I find myself circling back to my uncle’s damning phrase: “the only thing that’s meaningful about music is music.” He’s right, of course, and perhaps I should leave my dalliances there.Įxcept for the nagging fact that 3.38 million people in the United States alone have decided to find this particular collection of music meaningful-meaningful to the tune of eleven to thirteen bucks a pop, depending on whether or not you shop at Target for exclusive tracks. Still, none of this changes a simple fact: regardless of the venue, all of those posts, roundups, and articles-this one included-have been written in reaction to the huge numbers Adele generated no one tastemaker got hold of it beforehand and persuaded the lot of you to buy the thing.
Now, if I could point to one song that accomplished all these tent-poles at once, it would be “Send My Love (To Your New Lover).” It’s got the grace of damning individuals without sinking to their level it boasts nostalgia-not the least of which for a sound popularized in 2013 (there is a palpable Lorde influence here in the stacked vocal harmonies and the triplet pacing of the chorus's melody) there is the safety of Adele's customary phrasing as well (starting her phrases on an offbeat, swallowing the last syllable of every line of verse) and Adele's fondness for repetition (there is no phrase she likes, be it lyrical or musical, which she does not repeat at least three times) finally, there is the authenticity that comes in working with Max Martin and not letting him overpower your sensibilities (a feat, I argued, that Taylor Swift failed to accomplish on 1989).
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