ADELE. Not as musically productive when she isn’t heartbroken.
No other performer renders heartbreak, regret and remorse better than Adele—who demonstrates her emotive ability and interpretive skill once again in “Hello,” the nostalgia-driven lead single of her third studio album, “25.” This time, she sings as the guilt-stricken romantic “aggressor,” for a change—and she hasn’t done much healing!
Adele is done “demonizing” the indecisive lovers and two-timers Taylor Swift and Alanis Morissette often cry about, as she takes a closer look at the other side of the coin: “I must have called a thousand times/ To tell you I’m sorry for everything I’ve done/ But, you never seem to be home/ Did you ever make it out of that town, where nothing ever happened?”
Four years after her chart-topping “break-up” album, “21,” the 27-year-old songstress consolidates her gains by releasing a “make-up” collection (on Nov. 20) that has taken her forever to finish because, as she rationalizes, “life happened.”
Truth is, Adele has had to recuperate from throat surgery, give birth to her 3-year-old son, Angelo, and shake off writer’s block—after all, a “happy” Adele isn’t as musically productive as when she’s crying over the One That Got Away!
UNDERWOOD. Sings about her father and son.
‘Storyteller’
American Idol Carrie Underwood, country music’s reigning queen (and the talent show’s most successful alumna), lets her exceptional voice do the talking in her fifth studio album, “Storyteller”—a crowd-pleasing fusion of barn-dance swingers (“Renegade Runaway”), feel-good anthems (“Smoke Break”) and cautionary tales (“Church Bells,” “Choctaw County Affair”).
The 32-year-old songstress’ glowing ballads—the revealing “Like I’ll Never Love You Again” and the self-penned “Heartbeat”—make her showy lineup more intimate and radio-ready, even for music lovers who aren’t partial to country music.
She is likewise riveting when she sings about ties that bind—and the people closest to her heart: In the endearing “The Girl You Think I Am,” Underwood muses about what it was like trying to measure up to her father’s high expectations of her.
Underwood soars even higher when she shares how motherhood has changed her, in “What I Never Knew I Always Wanted”—which pays tribute to Isaiah, her 8-month-old son with NHL star, Mike Fisher: “Never pictured myself singing lullabies/ Sitting in a rocking chair in the middle of the night/ You’re stealing every bit of my heart with your daddy’s eyes!”