LITTLE ROCK — Adele 21ColumbiaA-
The big-voiced, older-sounding-than-her-years soulful British singer Adele won two Grammys in 2009, including Best New Artist. While other Brit soulsters have stumbled (Amy Winehouse, Duffy),Adele has kept her focus on this captivating release of songs about cheating, jealousy, love and heartbreak.
The thunderous “Rolling in the Deep” is a ferocious “woman scorned” song. She warns an ex-lover: “Go ahead and sell me out and I’ll lay your sheet bare/See how I’ll leavewith every piece of you.” “Rumour Has It” is soulful and bluesy with a 1960s girl-group vibe, while a cover of The Cure’s “Lovesong” as a bossa nova is a fascinating surprise.
But listen to Adele on the stunning “Someone Like You,” which finds the singer meeting an old love who married someone else. It’s romantic and desperate and wrenching as she begs for a second chance.Throughout, she is emotionally unerring.
Though 21 veers toward being overproduced (Rick Rubin, Paul Epworth, Ryan Tedder, et al.), Adele’s powerhouse vocals keep it mostly in check.
- ELLIS WIDNERHayes Carll KMAG YOYOLost HighwayA-
Hayes Carll, the Texas singer-songwriter with a degree from Hendrix College in Conway, is an observer who has separated himself from the pack of wannabes by being funny and taking note of things others would dismiss.
You can hear it throughout his fourth album KMAG YOYO (soldier slang for “kiss my a** guys, you’re on your own”), starting with the superrevved-up “Stomp and Holler” that opens with a robber being gunned down and then Carll compares himself to James Brown, only “white and taller.” The title track, about a young man who finds himself “in the desert with a gun,” is more harrowing.
The album doesn’t lack for Carll’s drawl or sardonic wit. “Boy they say you ain’t a poet/Just a drunk with a pen” jumps out from the highwayweary “Hard Out Here.” “Like a drunken Mona Lisa or the Leaning Tower of Pisa/You were hanging off the edge of town” is from the hilarious “Another Like You.”
Overall, KMAG YOYO has a little rougher edge to its gibes. It’s not hard to hear it as a recession record, as a warning letter from Carll’s vantage point out on the road. Some songs don’t connect, but this follow-up to 2008’s Trouble in Mind signals a serious artist coming into his own.
- WERNER TRIESCHMANNShemekia Copeland Deluxe EditionAlligatorB
There is raw, punchy power to Shemekia Copeland’s soulful voice, a talent she puts to good use in Deluxe Edition, a compilation of 16 songs she’s recorded over a 12-year span. Copeland, the daughter of the late blues guitarist Johnny Clyde Copeland, swings from blues to soul to jazz with the ease and grace of a singer who has some experience behind her (she’s only in her 30s). She definitely hasa Tina Turner vibe.
She finds the nuance in every song, from the roaring honky-tonk “Wild, Wild Woman” to the slower, Delta bluesy acoustic “Beat Up Guitar.” While her fiery vocals take center stage, she doesn’t hog all the spotlight. Supporting players get a chance to strut - the Uptown Horns, especially on the opener “Turn the Heat Up,” Dr. John on keyboards, Jimmy Vivino and Arthur Neilson on guitar.
The one weak note is the treacly bonus track “Santa, Stay a Little Longer.” Just skip it here and put it on a Christmas playlist alongside “Santa, Baby.” - JENNIFER GODWIN... And You Will Know Us by the Trail ofDead Tao of the Dead Richter ScaleB
Progressive rock at times feels like a dead end, or at best a cul de sac lined with fairy castles. But ... And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead has always felt more like an in-joke than a genuinely pompous outfit, though you’d be forgiven for believing that this cryptic, sprawling quasi-concept album - it comprises two “songs,” an 11-chapter, 35-minute A-side in the key of D, and a six-movement, 16-minute B-side - was recorded with serious intent.
Lots of overdubbed guitar skronk and primal screams as the boys imagine what awaits us on the other side. And it’s not pretty. Feel free to play it brain liquifying loud, but please use headphones.
- PHILIP MARTINBright Eyes The People’s KeySaddle CreekB+
Bright Eyes leader Conor Oberst continues his spiritual quest on this follow-up to 2007’s Cassadega, and the results are wholly satisfying and mystifying. The music bounces from Americana to buzzing pop (“Shell Games”) to heartbreaking, minimalist ballads (“The Ladder Song”), to the accusatory (“Approximate Sunlight,” which has the great line “Now it’s been said we’re post-everything”).
There’s even a strain of Rastafarianism running through the record, with references to I and I, the Lion of Judah and, most obviously, the infectious “Haile Selassie.” Puzzling, but ultimately fulfilling. Oberst, with his quavering voice, is in complete control of his talent and even the trippy, spoken-word intervals (called “shamanistic vocals” in the liner notes) from Denny Brewer seem just right in this context.
- SEAN CLANCY
Style, Pages 45 on 02/27/2011