What I Like About …

OK, someone who likes underground and dueling guitar bands really shouldn’t like Adele, but I think Rolling In The Deep is a great pop song. So much of what passes for R&B these days has no rhythm or blues in it, but there’s an awesome driving beat under what is some pretty serious heartbreak in her voice. Too many other singers rely on straining to sing at the absolute top of their range for three minutes and six seconds, doing gymnastics with their vocal chords when they should be singing.

Adele gets it. She sings safely in the middle of her range, drops down when necessary and only hits the high notes when it fits in the song. She is a singer who uses her voice as an instrument instead of a something to show off.

A similar thing happened in metal in the late 70s and all the way through the 80s when every singer wanted to be Robert Palmer. They were so impressed with his screams and howls that they didn’t notice most of his singing was just singing the notes that were needed to tell the song’s story. His screeches were for the same purpose. But then White Lion and the like showed up and all they did was the screeching part, which is hard to do but not that impressive.

Back to Adele, this is pretty much the only song I like of hers mostly because her lyrics generally annoy me. But Rolling in the Deep is a very good pop song.