Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Adele has pulled out of two planned concerts because of vocal problems
Critics have warmly embraced Adele’s third album 30, but say she could have been accused of abandoning an exciting creative outlet.
In the New York Times, David Edelstein called it “slightly depressive” while bringing up a point often overlooked:
“Adele has had years and years of writers’s block, hearing people ask if she’s ‘fixed’ herself.”
Some said 30 “raises some troubling issues”.
Image copyright NBC Image caption Adele’s concert in Paris last Thursday was staged in the backdrop of her own 30th birthday
Reviewer, Josh Levin says: “She could be saying something here, I hope. She could be singing about what it’s like to be the meek, afraid, depressed little girl-next-door.”
Others pointed out:
30 is on every list of favourite albums of 2018
This was Adele’s biggest year ever
It is her thirteenth album
Image copyright NBC Image caption After performing live in Paris, Adele said her voice was “not good enough”
In the Washington Post, Ann Powers writes: “Adele’s strengths and outlook – her joyous dances and allusions to her emotions, the warmth and exuberance that transcend studio sounds, often transporting me to another era – often feel less integrated here.”
It is ‘rare comfort’
While the Times’ David Edelstein found the tracks to be slow and moody, Spin’s Charles Rice describes the song Still Falling For You as “such a rare comfort: a love song with all the gusto you could expect from Adele that still packs a punch.”
Image copyright NBC Image caption Adele’s tour is her first since 2016
A piece for the Telegraph asks: “Has Adele lost it?” It says: “Writing is a mind-altering adventure, and when Adele sits down to write, I’d bet that any aneurysm is swiftly outpaced by inspiration.”
Image copyright NBC Image caption Adele performed a number of songs from 30 at her two Paris concerts, which concluded last week
Not a ‘successful experiment’
The UK Times’ Alexis Petridis says: “Adele is not reinventing any musical form, but this is an impressive reinvention. With her usual candour and ineffable vulnerability, she digs deep to find something distinctly personal and satisfying, capturing love and feelings to spare.”
Could 30 “become the first album where four out of the six tracks see this album as part of the truth of who Adele is?” says Petridis.
And in what could be a veiled attack on the ’90s, he says 30 is “loose and fun without being a successful experiment. It feels like an act of faith, not just artistic bravery”.
Image copyright NBC Image caption One critic praised the singer for singing about sex with “constant joy”
Says Slate’s Ann Powers: “30 is a return to form for Adele, especially on the Lullaby and the Dreamer-esque Too Young to Feel. You never expect that Adele (or indeed, Adele’s vocal coach) would perform similarly frail but wrenching numbers like That’s What I Like.”
And the Daily Telegraph’s reviewer concludes: “When Adele’s singer-songwriter peers, such as Sia, are suffering from bottle-of-wine fatigue, she seems to be adding another layer.
“But she couldn’t be any more self-confident or confident about her sound than on that Saturday Night Live joke, which mocked Gaga’s singing as it learned its way through a series of words.
“Granted, it’s a joke, but Adele doesn’t seem to be very good at handling insults.”