Sunday, February 12, 2017

Adele wins the Grammy for Album of the Year…Again

25

Adele


Released: November 20, 2015


Peak: 110 US, 113 UK, 112 CN, 18 AU


Sales (in millions): 11.0 US, 3.9 UK, 23.36 world (includes US and UK)


Genre: pop/blue-eyed soul


Tracks:

(Click for codes to charts.)

Song Title (Writers) [Time] (chart date, peaks on charts)

  1. Hello (Adele Adkins/Greg Kurstin) [4:55] (10/23/15, 110 US, 13 UK, 17 CN, 16 AU, 116 AC, 17 A40, 14 AAA, 10a RB, sales: 13.45 million worldwide)
  2. Send My Love to Your New Lover (Adkins/Max Martin/Shellback) [3:43] (12/12/15, 8 US, 5 UK, 10 CN, 13 AU, 13 AC, 12 A40, 2 AAA, sales: 1.55 million worldwide)
  3. I Miss You (Adkins/Paul Epworth) [5:48]
  4. When We Were Young (Adkins/Tobias Jesso Jr.) [4:51] (12/12/15, 14 US, 9 UK, 9 CN, 13 AU, 6 AC, 3 A40, 10 AAA, sales: 1.55 million worldwide)
  5. Remedy (Adkins/Ryan Tedder) [4:05] (12/12/15, 87 US)
  6. Water Under the Bridge (Adkins/Kurstin) [4:00] (12/12/15, 26 US, 16 AAA, sales: 0.5 million)
  7. River Lea (Adkins/Brian Burton) [3:45]
  8. Love in the Dark (Adkins/Samuel Dixon) [4:46]
  9. Million Years Ago (Adkins/Kurstin) [3:47]
  10. All I Ask (Adkins/Bruno Mars/Philip Lawrence/Christopher Brody Brown) [4:32] (3/5/16, 77 US)
  11. Sweetest Devotion (Adkins/Epworth) [4:12]


Total Running Time: 48:24

Rating:

3.847 out of 5.00 (average of 37 ratings)


Awards:

(Click on award to learn more).

About the Album:

After the monstrous success of her 2011 sophomore album 21, Adele considered quitting music. After all, how do you follow-up one of the most successful albums of all time? She suffered from writer’s block, but was inspired to work again after the birth of her first child in October 2012. She said then that she wanted her son to “know what I do.” WK She met with producer Greg Kurstin, after which she said “it all poured right out of me.” WK

She made a conscious attempt to move away from the break-up themes which dominated 21 and also added added synths and drum pads to give the album a modern sound. WK She initially wrote an entire album about motherhood which she scrapped because it was “too boring,” WK although she did keep Sweetest Devotion, an uplifting track written as a tribute to her son. WK

She told Rolling Stone the final product was about “yearning for her old self” and “melancholia about the passage of time.” WK To that end, she crafted songs such as When We Were Young, which explored Adele’s “uneasy acceptable of adulthood,” the album’s key theme. WK

25 didn’t quite achieve the cultural impact of 21,” BB “but by no means did Adele disappoint on her third studio album.” BB “It was still an industry phenomenon, scoring the largest sales week in SoundScan history with over 3 million copies sold in its first week – an unfathomable figure in any era, let alone where sales totals have long been shrinking.” BB It went on to easily be the best-selling album of 2015, moving more than 17 million by year’s end. WK With sales continuing into 2016, it became the biggest selling album of that year as well. WK

“The set contains the perfect melancholy soul hits to put her unbeatable vocals on full display, from Water Under the Bridge to ‘When We Were Young’ to Hello – all of which are the type of crossover smashes that made us fall in love with the British powerhouse in the first place.” BB “Hello” was a soul-driven piano ballad which Telegraph described as having “a very luscious wall of sound.” WK It was the first single and a monstrous #1. It went on to win Grammys for Record and Song of the Year and racked up more than 2 billion views on YouTube. The song took six months to finish. WK

In addition to working with Tedder and Paul Epworth again, Adele also collaborated with Max Martin and Shellback, Danger Mouse, and the Smeezingtons (which includes Bruno Mars). WK

The track Send My Love Your New Lover was a reworking of a song Adele wrote when she was thirteen and inspired by Amy Winehouse’s Frank album. She and Ryan Tedder, who worked with her on 21 and 25, went to lunch after unfruitful sessions and Adele heard Taylor Swift’s single “I Knew Your Were Trouble.” When Tedder told Adele it was produced by Max Martin, she reached out to him and they reworked “Lover.” WK

On February 12, 2017, Adele made Grammy history as only the second woman (after Taylor Swift) to win the Album of the Year twice for a solo effort. Adele first pulled off the feat with 21. In fact, Adele won all five Grammys for which she was nominated.

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First posted 3/1/2019; last updated 3/5/2024.

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