Adele - '19' (XL) Released 28/01/08

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"The idea with XL has always been to work with people who are original,” XL founder Richard Russell told The Guardian recently. But that’s exactly what she ain’t, signor. She’s coffee table music. The position West Norwood, South London dwelling Adele will take in your life is unsure. She’s a talent, for sure. But she’s been spectacularly beaten to everything she does by Amy Winehouse. If you love Winehouse, you might not need Adele. But Adele, I suspect, will be marketed to appeal to one-album-a-month music buyers who are gagging for another Winehouse. Especially now that crack habit of hers will have lost her favour amongst mums and aunties.

Bizarrely, Adele literally went to the same music school as Winehouse and Kate Nash. Is Adele to Winehouse what Nash is to Lily Allen? Nash is spunky, so is Adele. But Adele is on easy street. On occasion she pleasingly slips from her comfort zone into a Regina Spektor versus Feist soundscape. Opener ‘Daydreamer’, par example, is sexy, acoustic and about betrayal by a bisexual boyfriend: “He’s a real lover/Making up his past/And eeling up his girl like he’s never felt her figure before.” It’s sweetly sung and acts as a lightly ascending ramp into the rest of the album. But it’s the highlight.

‘My Same’ is decent, a Pink Panther sleuthing analysis of different characters colliding: “You’re so provocative, I’m so conservative/You’re so adventurous I’m so very cautious/Combining, you’d think we wouldn’t but we do, we dodadadoo.” It gets the shoulders going, that jerky dance best kept to smokey soul clubs. But this subtlety and lack of vanity is tailored in. She feels like a quick fix that won’t last. She’s got a great voice, but it’s not fresh. This cliché may destroy her.

Maybe this is snobbery. But once the number two SMASH ‘Chasing Pavements’ hits, you are suffocated in over-commercialised, horribly packaged gunk. It’s pure Hollywood. Cringe worthy and horrendous. Shiny, new and utterly interfered with. Natasha Bedingfield replaces Spektor. No imagination required; the appeal is on a plate with a massive This Is Easy Listening dressing. And it’s a shame to keep making the comparisons, but Winehouse’s appeal is her madness. Her personality explodes from ‘Back To Black’. Commercial, yes. Contrived and patronising, no. Adele is a melange of successful female singers with the voice of a soul singer. It sounds like cynicism.

Stunning levels of potential pour from her, and live reports tell of show stopping power and presence. The record is all the more disappointing because of what she’s capable of. The girl needs to be given a chance, and she could really make some people cry. She could be original Richard Russell, if you let her. She needs to choose: Joss Stone, KT Tunstall and Natasha Bedingfield, or Amy Winehouse, Ella Fitzgerald and Billy Holiday? It shouldn’t be too hard.