| Adele- Live At The Royal Albert Hall |
| Written by Emma Robertson | |||
| Tuesday, 20 December 2011 11:06 | |||
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 23 year old pop/soul/blues singer, Adele Adkins’ second studio album, 21 was released in the US in February of this year. Adele performed at the Royal Albert Hall in London as part of her Adele Live tour for 21, and the 90 minute performance was released on CD and DVD in late November 2011. Aside from the actual musical aspect of her performance, Adele is notoriously honest and quick-witted with a repertoire of silly anecdotes and an endearing laugh that kept the audience entertained throughout.
Opening with a song from her first studio album, 19, Adele performed Hometown Glory. Always a crowd pleaser, this song about her love for her hometown of London is lyrically beautiful, with soulful piano and, of course, Adele’s unmatchable harmonizing near the end. Deep and rooted in memory, Adele sings with her eyes closed at times, and the weight of this song is very evident. After performing two songs from 21, I’ll Be Waiting and Don’t You Remember, Adele moves on to perform Turning Tables. An intense piano ballad, this song takes big leaps, vocally, and Adele’s voice remains powerful albeit quite gritty – a true lament. Her next piece was somewhat disappointing. While Set Fire to the Rain is one of my favourite studio recordings, her live performance didn’t live up to my expectations; this song seemed to be a bit of a struggle, and rightly so. She re-interpreted the song by singing in a lower octave, which, though still nice, wasn’t nearly as dramatic. Next was a cover of a Steeldrivers’ song called If It Hadn’t Been For Love, a bluesgrass number about a man that kills his wife. 21 in its entirety has a light blues/bluesgrass influence, and this song is one of the few upbeat tracks from her album. One of my favourite performance pieces by Adele is Take It All; a song about heartbreak, she performs this number with tears in her eyes. Adele begins singing and, after exclaiming “that was a shit note, let’s start again” starts the song over. No harm done, though, as Take It All is a gorgeous song that Adele sings with incredible emotion, hitting the high notes effortlessly. After performing covers of ballads like Bob Dylan’s Make You Feel My Love and Bonnie Raitts’ If I Can’t Make You Love Me, Adele moves on to her finale performances. She describes Someone Like You as a song she wrote at the foot of her bed, after hearing the news that an ex was engaged. Filled with passion, Someone Like You has been her biggest success this year. The studio version hits very high notes, and for me, isn’t nearly as powerful as her live version, which reverbs with deep, resonating emotion in its strong vocals. Performing barefoot, she sings alone with a pianist with such fire and intensity that this performance literally gave me chills. Eventually she asks the audience to join in the chorus – a very touching moment that has even Adele tearing up. Her standing ovation lasts minutes. Finally, Adele finishes with another hit from 21, Rolling in the Deep, a vigorous, hard hitting number with bluesgrass style back up vocals that is the perfect closing number. All in all, her performance was a rollercoaster; while the vocals were emotional and moving, her character and personality added a kind of comic relief. This performance makes Adele very easy to love, both musically and otherwise.
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