Adele @ Joe's Pub: We're All Chasing Pavements

Tonight, I saw the NYC debut of the highly buzzed about and majorly talented singer-songwriter Adele Adkins. The London gal played a short, stripped-down set that pretty much showed why she's the real deal and no trendy, flash in the pan. By far, she is the best new voice in music on both sides of the Atlantic.

The setlist:

• Daydreamer
• Crazy For You
• Right As Rain
• Chasing Pavements
• That's It, I Quit, I'm Movin' On (Sam Cooke cover)
• Make You Feel My Love (Bob Dylan cover)
• My Same
• Melt My Heart To Stone
• First Love
• Hometown Glory

When I sit down to write these post-show posts, the first thoughts that usually pop-up are goofy things that happen on stage or something along those lines. This time, I just can't stop thinking about how amazing her voice is. She said she had a bad cold, but you could have fooled me. Obviously, she takes guidance from the founding singers of soul and jazz, Etta James, Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughn. When you think about, the music and that style of singing is timeless. Adele's voice is very much in the now, as well as something you can think of as classic.

As when The Nash gets compared to Lily Allen, so will Adele get mentioned in the same sentence as Amy Winehouse. I guess ... it's the same style, but Adele is a more stripped down, less production heavy singer. When I was listen to Adele's debut album, 19, I was thinking she's more of a Carole King/Phoebe Snow type. Carole King is a great songwriter because you don't have to dig deep to understand what they are about. Similarly, Adele's breakout song is "Chasing Pavements," it's in the same vein as a King song. It's a heartbreak song, but I just dig the imagery she creates with her voice. Also, I like the idea of chasing pavements. Anyway, not that 19 is a super-serious downer of an album. That pesky rascal Ronson has his mitts on the big rave-up song, "Cold Shoulder".  Columbia picked up the tab on the album in the U.S., so will eventually be available here.

Her live set tonight was 10 songs with her just her on guitar, her with a piano player or another guitar player. It was over before I knew it, which attests to how entranced you are when you see somebody who's voice is unreal. Between songs, she's just a big goof-ball with a thick British accent, gov-NAH. She doesn't just laugh, she cackles. It was something along the lines of, "So me lungs are full of junk HAAAAAAAAAHHH. Cheeky monkey." Okay, I made up the cheeky monkey part. You can tell she was a bit nervous because she closed her eyes through most of the show or would just stare off into space. When the music was over, she would just talk about whatever was on her mind to loosen herself up. She seems like a fun gal who will laugh at your jokes even though they are not funny -- my type of person.

So let's keep score with the new wave of female pop stars from the U.K. Miss Allen has the sassy attitude and body movin' tunes, Winehouse has the popular look, sound and production (and the busiest publicist in the business), Katie has the creativity and fun catchy tunes and Adele has the voice.

Comments

[Alan E Hill]

Oh ... this doesn't make me feel any better. I managed to get tickets for this show then went down with stomach 'flu big time ... But still, there is still the cd, and I can't imagine Adele won't be coming back to NYC ... but it would just have been nice to have been there at the beginning. C'est la vie ...

[Jessica M.]

Adele is amazing!
She's beautiful and talented.

I'm planning on going to a couple of her up coming shows, it's going to be brilliant.

[E]

this song is genius! I love this song!