The years biggest album reprises the themes of its predecessor – there’s no sign of Adele using her commercial clout to buy herself room for adventureThere’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, and whether such a thing is possible. It’s 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 fragment, 25 sticks close to the formula of the best-known tracks on its predecessor, and 21: stout piano-led ballads,decorated with strings and brass, dealing with heartbreak. In fact, or most of them seem to deal with precisely the same heartbreak that fuelled 21: five years on,Adele is still, metaphorically speaking, and planted on her ex’s lawn at 3am,tearfully lobbing her shoes at his bedroom window. Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com