Return to page 1: The start of Adele’s career
The record starts with “Daydreamer” – a track that invites you to daydream. It’s about a man who is there for his girlfriend even when he shouldn’t be. He can change the world with his hands behind his back, and he looks good when he walks. When he is not walking, he sits waiting for a surprise on his girlfriend’s doorstep. In “Daydreamer” you only hear Adele’s young voice and her guitar, which she plays softly.
About love dramas and cold shoulders
In the easy-going, but profound track “Chasing Pavements” the dilemma continues: Give up love, in other words surrender, or “Chasing Pavements” and get nowhere? You might think that sidewalks show you the way, but Adele proves to the listener with “Chasing Pavements” that going cross-country is sometimes better…
It is the first song she sang at her first SNL show in 2008. For many live viewers, the song was their first contact with Adele.
“Best For Last” is about a little love drama that everyone can relate to. The artist accompanies herself on the bass and creates a mood familiar to anyone who is madly in love. Adele hopes her lover starts to like her after numerous escapades with other girls – just like the saying “last, but not least”…
“Cold Shoulder” keeps what the title promises: In an ice-cold atmosphere, the song is about a person who tortures Adele with “words made of knives”, showing her the cold shoulder. Despite everything, the cold shoulder has a certain grace – like most bad boys who like to show young women the cold shoulder.
“Cold Shoulder” was the second song Adele performed on SNL in 2008: the unbroken charm of the bad boy Adele sang about even reached the audience.
Crazy For You and First Love
If you still love despite being shown a cold shoulder, what are you? Crazy. The melancholy timbre of Adele’s voice in “Crazy For You” bears witness to the old familiar love affair that drives you crazy. Adele calls her bluff: She even asks her lover to drive her crazy – is it her own fault or is she just following her nature?
What starts with the cold shoulder ends with the heart melted to stone: With “Melt my Heart To Stone” ends the first half of the album “19”. Adele is still stuck in the cycle of love: although her heart is now only a stone, she still forgives her beloved…
The tide of love can turn quickly – the immortal lover becomes a heartbreaker herself: the playful “First Love” proves how quickly this can happen. Accompanied by a celesta, this time it is Adele herself who is the cause for heartache and asks her first love for forgiveness. Adele states that the love is exhausted and she wants to try a kiss from someone else.
About friendships and Bob Dylan
In “Right As Rain” Adele is tired of love – the fast tempo of the song fits the motif of boisterous friendship, which brings excitement into life. But this is no ordinary friendship: it is a friendship that stands above fast-moving love affairs. Still, things go haywire between the friends. For Adele, who has had enough of love after so many love songs, such friendships are a safe harbour.
The timeless Dylan classic “Make You Feel My Love” reverses what Adele was just singing about: Now love is above everything again, proving it to the other person is more important than ever. The relaxing piano arrangement sets the interpretation apart from the other songs on the album. Alongside many other musicians, including Billy Joel and Neil Diamond, who also interpreted “Make You Feel My Love”, Adele takes her place among them with dignity.
The fact that Adele interpreted the Dylan song at all is thanks to her manager Dickins, who suggested the song to her when her own repertoire was still quite small.
Here she sings “Make You Feel My Love” and two other titles at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 2008:
Fatigue and Home
After so much love, Adele is tired: “Tired” is in opposition to the deceleration, which the title promises, held in a fast pace. Adele knows how to express the love fatigue she sings about with her voice. Despite all the tiredness, the song is not meant to make one fall asleep.
At the end of the album is Adele’s debut single “Hometown Glory”: here Adele again makes use of an expressive piano arrangement. It’s about a place that stands above love and any tiredness: Home. In Adele’s case, it’s her hometown – the glorious memories of her youth in West Norwood, London, are processed in the song.
Accompanied on the piano by Neil Cowley, the hymn of longing proves to be a worthy conclusion to Adele’s first album “19”.