Please, Adele, go Easy On Me!

I must have written about Adele before because I have an "Adele" tag. Don't remember when or why. She is such a major artist, though, that we should really have a go at her new album. So, in the spirit and tradition of Ozzy Man, here is my commentary on "Easy On Me."

Ok, well, at the beginning, before the music starts, it looks like we are going to have a black and white documentary on coal miners in Kentucky. But no, a heavily made-up Adele steps into frame, gazing pensively out the window of this rustic shack. Picking up a cheap, cardboard suitcase, she gathers herself and strides out the door. I guess this is all about her roots in the Deep South? This impression is shattered as she walks down the driveway, chatting on the phone in an almost impenetrable English accent, all glottal stops and compressed vowels. So, a Welsh coal-miner then? Hanging up, she walks past an abandoned old pick-up and a pile of trash, getting into a car (with a trailer, we've sold the family homestead) and sliding a cassette (a cassette!!) into the dashboard player. My favourite tiny detail is, just after she slides the cassette in, there is a moment of crackling imitating the sound when you place a phonograph stylus on a vinyl record! Then, almost a minute and three-quarters into the clip the music starts, pretending to be a diagetic part of the narrative. There follows a nice tune with acoustic grand piano accompaniment that is, well, exactly the kind of nice and oh gosh, heartfelt tune you would expect. Around the two-and-a-half minute mark I turned it off as I was bored.

So that's my Adele review. The efforts to seem "authentic" before the music even starts wore me out.