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 Adele By Deepi Harish I think I have a crush and her name is Adele. Yet another artist bred in North London, I’m starting to sense a trend; London-born equals sweet sounding artists with authentic skills. Adele has been deemed as the modern Amy Winehouse, I don’t agree; Amy stands as her own woman, Adele as another. Hypothetically speaking, if there were a competition between the two recording artists, each would certainly give the other a run for her money. What particularly allured me to Adele is her superb vocal control and her ability to hit a series of octaves all within a single riff. One could argue Mariah and Christina also possess this talent. Indeed they do however; their sounds are much more contrived, fitting into a cookie cutter mold and their lyrics well…they’re very la la landish; whereas Adele can easily be identified as… Adele. Overindulging in her muscular yet grainy, voluptuous voice makes it unthinkable that she is still in her teen years. Adele’s 12 track album entitled 19 incorporates funk, jazz, folks and soul. Adele was quickly well received by all of the UK and continues to be fancied outside of her home base. I regret missing her intimate Toronto show, back in March which according to my source (whom happens to be a musical connoisseur) said her performance was “short but too sweet.” I recently caught Adele perform in Toronto, earlier this month. Just as I had anticipated; Adele put on the performance that was worthy of my 20 dollar concert ticket, the parking fee I had paid to wedged my car into a secure, but wrong spot, the additional 30 dollar cab ride, to and from The Queen Elizabeth Theatre and lastly the exasperation I had managed to create and magnify by the circumstances. Regardless, I arrived to the compact theatre, only to find my friend and her lover seated comfortably in the second tier of chairs. I made the executive decision to seize the vacant floor seat, five rows from the stage and meet up with my friends afterwards. One by one, Adele’s band made their way onto the stage and then Adele herself emerged from behind the thick, black curtain jumping right into her first track ‘Right As Rain.’ Her immaculate voice shunned the crowd’s murmurs from the get-go. Dressed in a casually loose baby doll blouse, tights and a messy bun, she sounded calm and comfortable, as if we were sitting in her living room and she was doing what is effortlessly natural to her. It was lovely. Adele intangibly gripped her party of 1200 or so by their each and every auditory organ, and kept them erect for as long as she was front and centre. Music debauchery indeed. Between each track Adele voiced a few remarks then fluently moved into her next track. Controlled, yet pacifying. Her track ‘Melt my Heart to Stone,’ left the audience melting in her sizzling sound. High, controlled pitches in ‘Daydreamer’ and “Crazy For You” paired with the soulful lullaby in “First Love” kept the listeners eagerly wondering what Adele would spoil them with next. Ending with her hit single “Chasing Pavements” humorously she changes the final chorus to accommodate her Canadian audience to “should I give up or should I just keep chasing sidewalks.” The crowd pledged for an encore, hoping to entice the British chanteuse to appear once more on stage by releasing deafening claps, whistles and roars. No encore, just a non-dramatic “See ya later, Thank You for making it out and spending money to see me” statement closed the show. Short and too sweet indeed. |