Adele’s New Album: More Of Same
Alexis Petridis writes: ‘There’s something curiously irrelevant about reviewing Adele’s third studio album. The astonishing sales of its first single, “Hello,” suggest that global success on a scale unseen since the last time Adele released an album is already a foregone conclusion. The public seems even less interested in critical opinion than usual, if such a thing is possible. It has already been taken as read that “25” is a masterpiece: its quality isn’t up for question. Certainly, no one who buys it is going to angrily return it to the shop because it wasn’t what they expected. For the most part, “25” sticks close to the formula of the best-known tracks on its predecessor, “21”: big, piano-led ballads, decorated with strings and brass, dealing with heartbreak. In fact, most of them seem to deal with exactly the same heartbreak that fuelled “21”: five years on, Adele is still, metaphorically speaking, planted on her ex’s lawn at 3am, tearfully lobbing her shoes at his bedroom window.
