Ok, just listened to Adele’s Grammy performance on YouTube. Coincidentally, just a couple of days ago I asked my wife, who is a fan, to play Adele’s latest CD for me; I don’t listen to many pop singers, had only heard bits and pieces of her work and wanted to know what all the hoopla was about. Here’s my take:
Adele can sing and has a "sound" of her own with some interesting colors......for a pop diva in 2016. The problems she had at the Grammy’s, and she had problems, bear this out. It is true that a mic falling into the piano and causing effects that sound like a very out of tune guitar can be a major distraction. But, that was a factor only for part of the performance and she had ample time to recover and find the pitch center. At around 2:30 the problem with the clanging disappeared and the piano sounds just fine and in tune. It’s possible that the accompanist figured out the problem and stayed away from the offending keys on the keyboard. I don’t mean to be overly critical of her, but all this points to the "fragility" of a performer like Adele’s chops and to the state of singing in the pop music world in general. They can sound good (sometimes really good) on records, sometimes with the help of multiple takes and the various electronic "bandaids"; or live, when everything is just right. A great singer/performer would have recovered and not have had the pretty severe pitch and range problems that Adele had that night.
I hear it time after time with singers like Amy Winehouse, Adele and others. A singer comes along that has some real ability and style and they are put on a pedestal that, in my opinion, is a little too lofty relative to their true ability; not because they are THAT great, but because almost all the other pop singers out there are so bad. The bar has been set way too low in my opinion. I think Adele is a good singer and I particularly like her lower vocal range. Her upper range, where I think she finds her "sound", gets to be too nasal and "samey" for me. I think time will tell just how much of an artist she really is.
Adele can sing and has a "sound" of her own with some interesting colors......for a pop diva in 2016. The problems she had at the Grammy’s, and she had problems, bear this out. It is true that a mic falling into the piano and causing effects that sound like a very out of tune guitar can be a major distraction. But, that was a factor only for part of the performance and she had ample time to recover and find the pitch center. At around 2:30 the problem with the clanging disappeared and the piano sounds just fine and in tune. It’s possible that the accompanist figured out the problem and stayed away from the offending keys on the keyboard. I don’t mean to be overly critical of her, but all this points to the "fragility" of a performer like Adele’s chops and to the state of singing in the pop music world in general. They can sound good (sometimes really good) on records, sometimes with the help of multiple takes and the various electronic "bandaids"; or live, when everything is just right. A great singer/performer would have recovered and not have had the pretty severe pitch and range problems that Adele had that night.
I hear it time after time with singers like Amy Winehouse, Adele and others. A singer comes along that has some real ability and style and they are put on a pedestal that, in my opinion, is a little too lofty relative to their true ability; not because they are THAT great, but because almost all the other pop singers out there are so bad. The bar has been set way too low in my opinion. I think Adele is a good singer and I particularly like her lower vocal range. Her upper range, where I think she finds her "sound", gets to be too nasal and "samey" for me. I think time will tell just how much of an artist she really is.