Adele - 30 (November 19, 2021) Album • Page 8

Definitely getting a "kiss the ring" feel from a lot of the reviews of this. That Pitchfork writeup especially felt completely devoid of any enthusiasm for this album, but somehow it's an 8.2?

 

This is fine but I probably won’t ever come back to it.

 

she really does have a command over the machine in a way no other musician does

 

I listened and my immediate reaction was this is her best work to date……..but I’m pretty agnostic when it comes to Adele, I love a lot of the big obvious songs (Someone Like You, When We Were Young, Hometown Glory, Make You Feel My Love, and Send My Love), but everything else has always passed me by as MOR adult contemporary.

 

Same. The album doesn't come off as boring and calculative as other Adele albums. It's more raw, loosely structured and vibe-ready. The hooks are there, but they're more subtle. And for a divorce album, it's surprisingly level-headed and mature. I'm not surprised by the critical reception at all.

But the album most likely won't be a big hit with audiences who probably expected a typical divorce drama and big hooks.

 

I think my issues with it are mostly structural. By far her least engaging opening track, and then having “My Little Love” at track three, just kills any and all momentum out of the gate. And then the album feels like it has as many endings as Return of the King. Just a really oddly put together album for me, and I think the result is that some of the songs don’t hit like they should on first listen or even fifth listen. I didn’t really start enjoying the album at all until I started taking it apart.

 

I personally think the sequencing on this is perfect. Strangers By Nature works well as an intro to the more cinematic sound of this album. Easy On Me is the most classic sounding Adele song and that familiarity helps ease the listener in. My Little Love lays out the issues at the core of the album. Then Cry Your Heart Out, Oh My God, and Can I Get It are kind of the "if I just keep dancing maybe I don't have to actually deal with it songs". I Drink Wine brings things back down to reality and says ok it's probably time to deal with it now. All Night Parking is the transition into the more devastating songs where she actually confronts everything she's going through and starts working through it. Then Love Is a Game wraps everything up and sees her reach some kind of clarity and acceptance.

 

Absolutely agree that Strangers By Nature and My Little Love so early in the tracklist really kills the momentum. I would reshuffle those in the tracklist, and just remove Hold On and Woman Like Me. Do that and this might be my second favorite Adele album.

 

I think “Strangers By Nature” is frankly just a bad song and I would not keep it on the album at all. “Hold On,” I quite like, I just think it gets exhausting having those three really long ballads in a row at the end. My least favorite of the three is “Love Is a Game,” personally. And then “My Little Love” has some interesting aspects, but is just way overloaded with the voice memos and feels interminable.

 

It’s just long and unwieldy in a really good way imo. Feels unrestrained. “Can I Get It” is a misstep though, not sure what’s going on there, a truly bad song.

I love the opener, that’s what hooked me, was a signal of the new nuances she was going to deploy in the production.

and yea, “To Be Loved” is truly one of the best songs of the year. The last 30 seconds alone, shivers.

 

My only weird gripe I have with To Be Loved is that it should ended 20 seconds sooner, right on the acapella "LET IT BE KNOWNNNNNNN." I hate that it does that loud piano slamming ring out.

 

"Opening week projections have emerged for Adele’s “30,” and they confirm what many were expecting. The album’s opening week performance will not rival that of predecessor “25,” but it will still be the biggest release of the year. According to Hits Daily Double, the album is expected to debut with 800-850K in total consumption. The consumption figure accounts for album sales and equivalent units from track sales and track streams. Hits adds that about 500K should come from physical sales."

That's almost a 70% decrease in first week sales of physical copies to 25. Has the music industry changed that much in six years or do people not like this album as much as the critics?

 

Current projection for first week sales is 800 - 850k.
It'll be the year's biggest first week sales, and probably the biggest first week sales in several years. And yet I'm still surprised this isn't cracking 1 million.

EDIT: Ahh Garrett beat me to it!

 

The music industry HAS changed that much.

 

Here’s the thing, though: if even Adele can’t do a million in a week anymore, then it will never happen again.

 

Also worth noting that 25 (and Reputation, which is the only album since to do a million) were not released on streaming right away

 

They were fun while they lasted.

RIP
1 Million in 1 Week
1998-2017
19 Albums, 13 Artists
From Garth Brooks’ Double Live to Taylor Swift’s Reputation

 

Lover would’ve done it with Cruel Summer as the lead single. It got close enough with Me! lmao

 

What a horrible lead single lol. It’s fun to look at which albums could/should have hit the milestone, along with ones that used loopholes to hit it.

For instance, Eminem’s Encore would have been 3 in a row for him if it weren’t released mid-week because of bootlegs. Meanwhile, Lady Gaga’s Born This Way only hit it because of $1 digital downloads on Amazon.

30 likely would have sold a bunch more physical copies if it followed the same strategy of 25 and didn’t go straight to streaming, but would that have made up the difference from people streaming? Either way she’s going to sell a ton more physical copies in the weeks to come leading up to Christmas.

 

I don't really want to get into it in the Adele thread, but ME was absolutely the right lead single and Cruel Summer wouldn't have worked at all as a lead. Taylor is the absolute BOSS at "shock" singles to kick off an era. Literally perfected the art. A shock single doesn't need to be the best single on the album, or even close, but it get's people talking.

We Are Never Getting Back Together, Shake It Off, Look What You Made Me Do, ME.... all have the same thing in common, they were big changes from the previous era and all had a TON of articles written about them, social media buzzing, just consistent discussion about the songs. All of them had positive and negative things being said, but any press is good press. Shock singles work and I really don't think Cruel Summer would have had that effect

 

“ME!” had positive things being said?!

I don’t think she ever NEEDED the shock single, especially at that point. “Cruel Summer” would have done just fine, because then the discussion would have been “this leadoff single is actually good?!”

 

I mean, look at the thread for Lover... positive things being said on the first few pages, from myself... @Garrett , Jason, etc. And of course the negative reactions, but yes lots of positive things have been said.

Cruel Summer is a fan favorite in the way that Out Of The Woods was, and is basically the same song as Out of The Woods and Getaway Car... neither of which did well as a single. If Cruel Summer was released as a single I don't think it would have gained much ground aside from people who were already Taylor fans

 

I take issue with your line of reasoning! Here's why:

1. You’re comparing a first single to a sixth single. “Getaway Car” was released 10 months after the album came out, and six months after the previous single. By that point, the album’s momentum had mostly dissipated. I don’t think that song’s lukewarm performance as a single really had anything to do with what it COULD have done as the first song out of the gate, with the hype of hearing Taylor's first non-soundtrack song since 1989 behind it.

2. "Cruel Summer" has similarities to "Getaway Car" and "Out of the Woods," but it has a way bigger hook than either and is just generally the more propulsive, radio-friendly song.

3. Reputation, at this time, was still viewed as something of a disappointment, by Taylor's standards at least. Mixed reception, a ton of backlash from the Kim/Kanye thing, singles that didn't really permeate the culture in the way the 1989 songs did, etc. Whereas I can see there being some "Well, it's good but it mostly sounds like 1989" reception around "Getaway Car" had that been the Reputation leadoff, I think "Cruel Summer" would have been touted as an incredible "return to form" and a clear song-of-the-summer candidate. And I think it would have done what "ME!" couldn't and knocked "Old Town Road" out of the number-one slot.

Obviously, this is all conjecture. But, to bring it back to Adele, obviously you don't have to shock your audience or reinvent the wheel on your leadoff single to make a lot of noise.

 

All fair points my friend, and in the end we'll never know haha... But yeah, at least Adele fans have proven you don't need to change it up for a hit, but who knows if it would have had the same effect with Taylor fans

 

Ha, the only reason I think it would is that Taylor fans seem to love dunking on her single choices.