Adele’s ‘21’ is frontloaded like a steamroller sent to flatten all memory of her debut with the roiling gospel thump of ‘Rolling In The Deep’ and ‘Rumour Has It’, a swamp song so perfectly shadowy David Lynch might be fond of it.
They’re light years ahead of the supermarket-brand hurt Adele bled all over ‘‘19’, which begs the question: why allow that pastel-pink mush to reanimate in the opener’s wake?
Still, the Auto-Tune and teenage love stuff don’t entirely ruin a surprisingly weighty return that includes the Karen Dalton-like ‘Someone Like You’ and talk-to-the-hand country slink of ‘I’ll Be Waiting’.
Chris Parkin
6/10