Apparently set to top the UK charts this weekend…
[Video][Website]
[6.40]
Alex Macpherson: So…what the hell happened to Adele in the past couple of years? Last time round, she made the dullest kind of ersatz, beige soul: an Amy Winehouse sans scary crack’n’ink to fill in the profit margins while the real Winehouse was indisposed. “Rolling in the Deep” sounds like the work of another artist entirely. Maybe one whose desire to be Nina Simone is still a touch too obvious, but who possesses enough gravitas to bring genuine intensity to her performance. The unusual arrangement helps, thumping beats fading in and out while backing vocalists taunt from afar. The much-hyped Jamie xx remix approaches the song from a different angle, bringing cowbells and handclaps to the table, but ends up in an oddly similar place: no bad thing, though one questions why he only appears willing to remix artists who just happen to be labelmates (it’ll be Vampire Weekend next, probably). And I still maintain that Romy xx’s recent venture outside their band is far more worthy of attention than either Jamie or Adele.
[7]
Anthony Easton: Maybe as a big girl with no voice, I love big girls with big voices a little more than most, and of course their is the whole fag relationship to her diva thing, and Adele is nothing if not a diva — a diva that is strangely marked by control instead of excess. Those are the cultural reasons why I love this song, and even if I know its flaws, there is a warmth, a familiar comfort of the heartbreak and the sadness that makes me pump this as something genius as opposed to something competent.
[8]
Martin Skidmore: Her voice remains very impressive, bluesy and soulful, especially as she launches into the big chorus, and this number stomps along with some force, despite some occasionally clumsy lyrics. Ultimately, it’s the powerful way she sings “we could have had it all” that makes this a definite winner, especially that final word.
[8]
Alfred Soto: My first thought: the voice is a sample. We’ve grown used to the likes of Moby and Fatboy Slim scouring old blues records for “authentic” voices. As seductive as Adele sounds on first listen, she doesn’t bridge the divide between her commitment and the lyrics she’s singing — a divide that the dark piano chords and insistent beat don’t reckon with either.
[6]
Zach Lyon: So I’ve listened to this many times, and only just now realized that it’s Adele (and not Duffy), and I still have no idea what it’s about. It’s probably about something very simple, or maybe abstract, I don’t know, I just can’t bring myself to care for long enough before a more important thought/daydream overtakes the lyrics. The chorus, especially the backup, is great, though. So that’s something.
[5]
Jonathan Bogart: To my knowledge this is the first thing by Adele I’ve heard; the obvious comparisons are to Amy Winehouse and Duffy, but the music isn’t quite as reverently soulful. What she really makes me think of is Led Zeppelin peeling away at the dusty skin of the blues to find the gleaming, unyielding chrome underneath: the same forward thrust and mechanized roar, flattening out the black American contours of the old music into something modern and technological and overdone.
[7]
Jer Fairall: It is a genuine novelty to hear such a clean, crisp production on pop radio these days, and every percussive thump and guitar strum here has a palpable texture to it that, for all of their occasional innovation, is lost among modern day everything-but-the-kitchen-sink arrangements. Hearing a classic-soul-inspired young British female vocalist on pop radio is considerably less novel, but Adele has more genuine presence than most simply by virtue of avoiding the overstatements of Amy Winehouse and the annoying quirks of the helium-huffing Duffy. There are actually very few current mainstream artists that I want to root for more than her, but a good part of that is wanting to her to move away from the excessive tastefulness that tethers her so firmly to that mainstream. Accordingly, “Rolling in the Deep” is another well-crafted and, in its own quaint way, impressive composition that nevertheless feels like exactly the kind of tame thing that is holding its singer back from doing something truly stunning.
[6]
Katherine St Asaph: Isn’t it a bit presumptuous to make a video where your song and/or voice can shake crystal and fling-smash porcelain? Which, by the way, doesn’t happen too often. You can take it down a notch, really.
[5]
Chuck Eddy: Starts out as predictably cold and distant as any other recent Brit soul attempt. But when it comes on in the background, amidst other songs, and I’m getting work done and not paying close attention, the modest heat worked up in the middle always catches me by surprise. Doesn’t last, but still.
[5]
Tom Ewing: Effort and reverence are what makes this kind of music a bit tedious, but on the other hand this is trying so hard to be something a bit more special than the usual Joolsbait that I’m won over anyway.
[7]