Adele

One of the hardest things about writing this specific piece is acknowledging the fact that I’m getting older. Every single day I continue to age and every moment feels like it disappears a little too quickly. Sometimes I think my time is running out and that I need to do everything I can before it’s up. Of course, this shouldn’t be the correct way to go about it. For some, each age brings something new and exciting to explore. I’d like to think that way, but I’ve always been a constant worrier. Maybe it’s because I’m a huge emotional mess. And I think that’s why I connect with artists like Adele so much. I’m not saying that she’s a huge emotional mess, but she definitely isn’t afraid to express the way she’s feeling, and she does it beautifully. Sometimes it hurts a little more than it should. Before my birthday, I told everyone that the only proper way to kick off the day would be by listening to 25 by Adele alone in my room right after I wake up. I received a few laughs and some unwavering support from my fellow empaths, but I really don’t know why I thought it would be a good idea. I didn’t need to feel so hard at such an early hour on this day of all days. I understand that 25 focuses more on the relationship aspect of being in your mid-20s, but I think it offers some very unique perspectives on what it’s like to grow up and mature despite the constant hardships. I’m not sure what this means for what my 25th year will bring, but if it’s love, then I guess I know how to handle it in the best way possible thanks to my good pal Adele.

A debut from the multi-platinum selling artist. Adele Adkins was just 19 (hence the album's title) when she put these 12 tracks to tape. It is easy to name Adele as another Kate Nash, all top-shop-dresses and haircuts. But listening to this collection of world-weary laments about no-good, two-timing men, you'd be forgiven for thinking Adele was decades older, and this is why it's such a sudden surprise that it's an innocently touching, wisely considered and brilliantly vocal opus that belies her ostensible age. Throughout 19, Adele pines for what every girl wants: someone to love her for who she is. Alas, that's not something she's experienced much of if these songs (all but one of which she wrote or co-wrote) are any indication. And the fact that she's been a concern on MySpace for a while only ups the sense of trepidation. Add to that a debut which came filled to the brim with nervous caterwauling and hopes for her album isn't pitched particularly high. Fellow crooners like Kate Nash and Amy Winehouse, Adele Adkins refined her skills at the Brit School in South London, though her debut topped the British Charts and it shows off a vocal instrument that smokes the competition, it lacks the bad-girl brio of those grads. Adele Adkins, pitching up somewhere between blues, folk, and jazz, she's included something for everyone without ever pandering to a particular trend.

For as long I can remember, I have always been a lover of what I like to call good music and most especially love songs. My favourite female artistes back then whenever I was in the mood to listen to such songs then were the likes of Celine Dion, Whitney Houston, Maria Carey, Jennifer Lopez and so on. Even when it felt like I was beginning to live in the past, as most of their songs had become a little old, I still stuck to them being my favourite songs. Then came the year 2011 when I discovered there was a new sensation in town who specialized in singing love related songs and does it so well. I found out her name was Adele and I decided to buy her album that was titled 21. I never really had time to sit down to listen to the songs on the album until a particular day that happened to be my then girlfriend's birthday and we agreed to meet at a restaurant with couple of her friends and mine. My friends and I arrived at the restaurant earlier so as to prepare everything that might be needed. When we got set, I put a call through to her and asked them to be on her way. We started counting as seconds turned to minutes, minutes to hours and still no sight of my her or her friends either. It got to a point we all got angry and decided to leave the restaurant and head to a bar around the corner to grab a drink, with the thoughts that probably before we finished drinking, they would have arrived. On our way to the bar, I saw an old classmate of mine from high school, coming out of a restaurant that wasn't so far away from the one we just left. I approached him and we had chitchat, in the process I asked him what he was doing around at the restaurant and he said he brought his girlfriend who was having her birthday and her friends. He was barely done saying this when I saw couple of girls come out of the restaurant and he pointed out the one who was his girlfriend. I was so shocked when I got a clear view of the girl he was pointing at, it was the same girl that was supposed to be my own girlfriend, the one I and my friends had been waiting for all day, his girlfriend was my girlfriend. Immediately she saw me, she tried to run back inside but decided against it when she realized that I must have recognized her already, I walked away. I finally got back home and the first thing I found myself doing was inserting the album disc I bought few days earlier, listening to the songs as tears streamed down my face. The song that hit the most was "Someone like you" as it felt like the song was directly preaching to me, giving me the hope of finding someone I would love like the girl that just broke my heart. That's what Adele's song does to you, when you are gradually falling in love, it makes you fall deeper and faster and whenever you are nursing heartbreak, it helps you heal swiftly. This album didn't just heal me, it also became an addiction for me, one that I couldn’t break until Adele released another album.

After taking a break for 3 whole years, Adele stormed back with this album that was dubbed a massive success by both her fans and music critics. Adele Laurie Blue Adkins who had won all of our hearts in 2008 with her first studio album titled 19 that was certified eight times platinum by the British Phonographic Industry with sales of over 2.4 million copies and also later peaked at number four on the US Billboard 200 in the year 2012. The album was estimated to have sold over 3 million copies in the US and over 7 million copies worldwide. She followed this up with another massively successful album titled 21 in the year 2011, further raising the bar her previous album had set, 21 sold a whooping 31 million copies worldwide and was immediately regarded as one of the best selling album of all time. The album stormed the Grammy's gallery and raked in awards for Album of the year, Best pop vocal album. "Rolling In The Deep", one of the headlining tracks off the album also raked in awards for Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Short Form Music Video while another song off the album, "Someone Like You" won Best Pop Solo Performance. All of these summing up to the total of 6 Grammy Awards in one night which made her become the 6th artiste to have won a Grammy Triple Crown in one night and also the youngest one to ever do it as she was just 23 years old when she achieved this feat. Adele wrote her name on the stone that would forever stand the test of time with this album. She secured her place in the league of the Greatest Of All Time (G.O.A.T) and the best to have ever done it. The accolades received by the album sparked a lot of online debates and argument among fans as to who was the real G.O.A.T between Beyoncé and Adele. Trust me, i personally made sure I stayed away from this debate anytime i come across it because I might have personal likeness for Beyoncé and her accolades also speak volume but honestly, Adele is not a shove aside for her, not even for a minute. If I were ever compelled to pick who my GOAT is between them, I would only pick Beyoncé because of personal preference. Amidst all of these arguments, accolades and many more situations triggered by the album, it was announced that Adele had decided to quit music completely. This was indeed very heartbreaking news to her fans all over the world and every lover of good music. Just when we were coming to terms with the fact that a rare gem had decided to keep her self away from all eyes and her golden voice from all ears, she made an announcement that she was only taking a break from music just so she could live her life a little. This break was brought to an abrupt end by the birth of her first child as she claimed that she had to do music just so her son could grow up knowing what she does. This announcement was one of the best news that the world heard in the year 2012. However, it took another 3 years before she finally gave us another world heavyweight album in 2015 and called it 25.

Not long ago I suffered a loss and, above all, a reunion with a person who does not always like me: myself. My uncle is no longer here, and I wasn't there to say goodbye. I've always been away, I'm always away from everything and everyone. He was the dearest to me when I was a child, but the misfortune of growing up and becoming an "adult" harden your heart, your selfishness does not allow you to understand that there are people always, without asking anything; on the contrary, just waiting for a call, a short visit, a letter perhaps, something that makes them think that are still loved and valued, something that gives them the certainty that you dedicate a thought sometime and even though it was, I never let him know. Only that and nothing else. For neither of that, nor of anything else I was able to do before his death, I just informed myself about his state of health through others. And things will not be as before, only memories will remain and perhaps forgive me someday for not having approached, as it would have been his desire, just to see me, nothing more. I don't know how many hours I've been listening to Adele again and again "When We were Young", which reminds me of many of the things I lived in that childhood that I lost and I'm sure I won't recover again. That childhood in which my uncle was precisely the one who introduced me to art. They were fascinating and endless hours recording "our radio drama" from the book by Orson Welles: "The War of World's". In an old recorder, he, my brothers and I (the youngest) did not feel that time passed while we read the script that my uncle prepared. They were more laughs than anything else, but that was the most beautiful thing that could have happened to us, having an uncle like him. I spent hours with my eyes open as dishes while contemplating his brilliant way of painting landscapes. I never would have learned to swim if it hadn't been for him. And the guitar that accompanied him whenever there was a family reunion. He was a very basic guitarist, but he knew enough to give us fun for hours. The most beautiful songs of the “Trios” of his time, the most endearing Mexican music and the Rock 'n' Roll of the 50's and 60's could not be missed.

After a three year hiatus and giving birth to an adorable baby, Adele finally released a new album. The third album titled 25 was highly anticipated and surely did not disappoint her fans. Adele has said that whereas the album before, 21, was a breakup album, this one is a makeup album. This album is an album about making up with herself, making up for lost time, and making up for things she has done and missed. The album offers a bit of a pop sound as well as some R&B, yeah I said it, and has a bit of some jazzy and 70’s influence on a few tracks. She manages to perfectly balance her awe worthy ballads with some fun pop tunes to make you move, and she does that by making a pattern which might not be that amazing, but it makes the album super fun to listen to.