STACK #196 Feb 2021

MUSIC FEATURE

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ADELE 19 Bryget Chrisfield explores the creation, impact, and astonishing legacy of her favourite classic records. This month: Adele’s debut, 19 .

Adele nailed it when she quipped, “We’re a gender, not a genre.” Such was Baby Adele’s love for British singer-songwriter Gabrielle that she asked her mum Penny to make a sequinned eyepatch modelled on her idol’s trademark accessory. Penny obliged, and so off to school Adele went, proudly sporting her blinged-out pirate look. Penny had Adele when she was only 18 and the pair are super-close, perhaps enhanced by the fact that the father of the house jumped ship when Adele was just three. During a television appearance, Adele claimed that Penny smuggled her toddler- aged daughter into a Cure show, at Brixton Academy, under her trench coat. (Is she having a laugh, though? It’s hard to tell with Adele.) Check out the touching version of The Cure’s Lovesong , which appears on 21 , that Adele dedicated to her mum! When Adele informed Penny that she’d covered Lovesong , she recalls, “I said, ‘Oh mum, I’ve covered Lovesong ; it’s a bossa nova version,’ and she was mortified. Then I played it for her and she loved it and she cried, but the [initial] thought of someone ruining a Cure song filled her with despair. She’d disown

D uring one of her 2017 shows at Marvel Stadium, Adele described what we were about to witness in typical self-effacing style: “It’s basically two hours of crying and songs about my ex- boyfriend,” she said, before joshing, “You’re not gonna have too good of a time, because my songs are miserable!” During this same concert, Adele admitted that writing her second album – the every- award-winning, gazillion x Platinum-certified 21 – “helped [her] get over being bitchy and witchy,” and she further revealed that touring isn’t really her thing (she’d rather be at home “eating a Chinese [meal]”, apparently). As for that sporadic, infectious cackle? Adele is the actual best. Back when her star began to rise, rapidly, many “lazy” (her word) journos compared Adele to some of the other female soul singers who were making waves around that time such as Amy Winehouse and Duffy.

Year 2008

me if she didn’t like it, but she loved it.” Apparently we have session guitarist Smokey Hormel to thank for this inspired choice of cover, and the first take, recorded when Adele was feeling particularly homesick while recording in Malibu, is what we hear on the album. Even though Adele wrote her first song, Hometown Glory – a homage to her hometown of West Norwood, where she moved aged 11 after spending her formative years in Tottenham – at 16, her debut album, 19 , was so named to reflect her age at the time of most of these songwriting sessions. “I just kinda remember becoming a bit of a woman during that time,” she told journalist Pete Lewis. “And I think that is definitely documented in the songs.” The story goes that Adele wrote Hometown Glory in 10 minutes after her mother tried to persuade her to fly the West Norwood coop. “I wrote Hometown Glory on the guitar,” Adele revealed. “It’s just four chords pressing one string – and it was actually the first song I ever wrote from start to finish. It was kind of about me and my mum not agreeing on where I should go to university. Because, though at first I’d wanted to go to Liverpool, later I changed my mind and wanted to go to university in London. But, because I love being at home

Adele in her break-out US performance on Saturday Night Live , 2008

16 FEBRUARY 2021

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