So, a little different approach to this one. There is a CD available with the tracks form this live performance, which was recorded and released as a DVD. However, it's not available to listen to on Spotify, and all of the buy links are for the DVD, so I can't preview things.
Okay, really, I'm just excited because the whole thing is on YouTube (or, at least, I'll be tracking all of the parts down somehow) and I can just have fun watching a concert. You know, here, at home, alone, on a Saturday night.
And we fade in, coming up on the hall itself and the music starting up. We get a hand playing chords not he piano, and the crowd anxiously awaiting Adele herself. And up comes a giant silhouette against a white curtain as she leads us in to "Hometown Glory." She breaks after the gentle opening verse and waves excitedly to her adoring crowd, flashes going off everywhere. And now she's home singing it simply to them all. Nothing flashy here (other than the camera) - just an awesome voice going about her business. | |
| "Royal Albert Fucking Hall!" I love that she's excited!! Also, I'm a sucker for balcony call outs. And she left a note in the audience for a girl! "I'll Be Waiting" is up next, and she considers this a fast one, hehe. It's really just slightly more upbeat and not quite as serious. I honestly don't remember this one quite as well as the others, but it's kind of cool. |
"Turning Tables" is next, and you'll have to excise me for not commenting on whatever inevitable banter she included in-between the songs - part 2 of 7 was impossible to find on YouTube, so I found someone who uploaded some CD tracks. Anywhos, this song still lives up to its twisting loveliness. It hurts so fantastically. It's an assertion of independence after the torture of someone who can't make up their mind. Oh the irony of personal issues. | |
| And now for one of the most mentally powerful imagery songs I've heard in a while, "Set Fire to the Rain." I just want to see glowing orange rain fall down in the background here. This is the first one I hear a difference from the album in the live version. It's actually even better, if that's possible. She's putting even more behind it as she sings. More intensity, more anger, more power. I really hated this song when it first came out. I resisted, but man, when you give over to it, there's not much better. |
Well before we get to "If It Hadn't Been For Love" (a cover of Nashville-based band Steeldrivers), we get to hear about her love for Dolly Parton! And they re-set the stage in a way you actually do see quite a lot in Nashville. It's a more intimate setting with everyone closer in playing together. Also, she does this funny little disgust thing at the end of the first chorus. It's a different sound for Adele, for sure, but she brings her own soul/jazz sound to the whole country scene. Very different, but very cool. | |
"Take It All" is the next one up, and she gives us the story of how it was accidentally written when she came back to work with an old songwriter friend. She didn't want to write this, didn't want to be this angry, and hid it from her boyfriend for a few days. When she did play is for him, well, I won't blame the song itself, but they did break up a few weeks later. And a line in, she hates how she hits a note, stops, and starts again. Very few people can get away with that, but she's that conscious. Plus, she's recording this on the come back from that infection that took our girl away from us for so damn long.
| Her saying they're upbeat and rare is sort of lost on me when she just did that a couple of songs ago. Though she did manage a "Sex In The City" reference, so that's fun. And that leads us into "Rumor Has It," one of my favorite and most clever Adele songs. This is, for sure, a song with a beat and a message and a damn good clever one at that. I love this because it just sticks it to the guy who can get his damn head on straight. And the way she trails down with those end-of-verse lines is just freaking hot. And holy shit, she just flipped the double bird at the end. I want to be Adele. |
Cool shout out to her background singers, since their "dancing professionals," and acknowledgment of the chair being out of laziness. Adorable. This is apparently the only song on the record that's not about her ex (whom she owes her fame to). This one is about the last guy that pissed her off, and she isn't over it. "Anyone who's come to the show tonight with a friend that you're in love with, just fucking tell them." This is "One and Only," a sweet ballad that has that wonderful smokey jazz sound to it. I adore this song in a way that a longing in-love girl only can.
"Lovesong,' a cover of one of the best songs The Cure has ever done, is next up and incredible. This is a cover she's done on her album, and it was always one the intrigued me to no end. Females singing traditionally male songs are always interesting, and it's usually either hit-or-miss. Hearing her take this on live is very cool, because it takes the incredible sound from the studio and just smacks you in the face with the realization that this lady is the real deal. | |
Bonnie Raitt's "I Can't Make You Love Me" is about to come out of Adele's mouth. I should just faint now. If you've never heard this, get out from under your rock and cry a little bit. This is one of those songs that you remember when you hear Adele, so to hear her sing it is really something awesome. It's a soulful song of sadness and realization.
| She's singing this one as a devotion, and calls for everyone to get those phones out to wave them, or else she won't sing. She loves the star look in the audience, and starts in on "Make You Feel My Love." Seriously, all sadness, but you can't help getting caught up in the beauty of it all. Between the phones and the disco ball shining little lights all over the place, it really is a beautiful venue even more so than normal. This will have the stress melting off your shoulders and your heart hurting, all at once. And then you giggle when you see the one lady waving her phone that the screen has gone off and black on a while ago. And then she sits there and admires the steel guitar, which is just a really cool music moment. |
"Rolling in the Deep" finishes out the evening with the audience dancing and screaming it out at the top of their lungs. It's really an incredible moment, watching an artist love it as much as they do. The whole thing is an awesome example of how damn good a live performance can really be.
Added to My Playlist:
- "Hometown Glory"
- "Don't You Remember"
- "Turning Tables"
- "Set Fire To The Rain"
- "Chasing Pavements"
- "Rumor Has It"
- "Right As Rain"
- "One and Only"
- "Lovesong"
- "I Can't Make You Love Me"
- "Make You Feel My Love"
- "Someone Like You"
- "Rolling In The Deep"
I almost left this one without a final thought! Silly me. I just enjoyed it so much that I figured the work would speak for itself. Really though, let's face it - she never fails to impress. I've heard all of the recordings, but this live album was just perfectly different and reassuring that the lady has it beyond what folks can even consider. I look up to her and that voice so much.