Around this time of year, music publications start putting together their lists of the best albums of the year. Since the release schedule slows to a trickle, it's a time when there's not much new material to look at, so even at the risk of not including some worthy entries, December is when everyone rates the best of the year. Of course, given that each publications have different priorities and music can come in a wide variety of styles, the lists can vary quite radically, but in the spirit of things I'm going to name my own album of the year.
In this case, I'm not going with my favorite album, because that changes all the time as I listen to more things, and I haven't caught up with the year's releases anyway. Instead, I'm picking a release that has made waves in the past year, and also represents one of the rare success stories in a world of depressed music sales. It's also put a song on the radio which I actually like, and at the risk of sounding like a snob that doesn't happen very often. So, I'll go out on a limb and say that Adele's 21 is easily the album of 2011.
Going strictly on sales, it's easily the most popular album of the year. It has never really dropped out of the top ten, and its sales have even increased in December, months after its initial release. Going on music, I like it a fair bit, the British soul singer has a great voice and I always perk up when I hear her songs coming through the stereo speakers. But the most important thing about Adele is that she's real, which is a weird thing to say until you look at the rest of the popular artists out there.
One of the problems with the popular music out there right now, something that record labels haven't really caught on to, is that it's often extremely over-processed, and that's also started to affect the way pop stars present themselves. Lady Gaga dresses like some sort of bizarre robot, Katy Perry seems to have been created in a lab, and the Black Eyed Peas are so drenched in Auto-Tune and computer effects that one wonders if they actually exist. There's a lot of flash, bright colors and post-processing on many of the pop stars of today, and for a lot of people, that's beginning to wear a bit thin, myself included. I can respect people liking the heavily processed music that has come out over the past few years, even if I don't, but for some reason I've needed songs that sound like human beings were involved in their creation.
Apparently people agree, because Adele has been one of the biggest sales successes in the past year. Her vocals aren't heavily processed, her arrangements largely use real instruments and her image isn't based on elaborate costumes. Her songs are grounded in emotions people can identify with, and sung with passion and soul. Until she starts singing, she seems to be an ordinary young woman, and when she begins she's something else entirely.
There's a place for different musical styles, so I don't expect heavily processed stuff to go away, but Adele proves that there's also a place for something a bit more soulful. Her success says there's a big, untapped market for people unmoved by electronic party jams, and if there are more people making her kind of music, maybe I can enjoy the radio again. It's a nice thought, at least.
