Adele 25

[amirm]

Just great.

As Steve Jobs once said, "insanely great!" Kudos to BBC and Adele for putting a big smile on my face this morning. And you for posting it .

 

[Ron Party]

^ +1

 

[Johnny Vinyl]

As Steve Jobs once said, "insanely great!" Kudos to BBC and Adele for putting a big smile on my face this morning. And you for posting it .

No one does music interviews, music documentaries and the like better than the BBC!

 

[NorthStar]

When are we all going to get it?
Modern big selling popular artists are recorded to sound good on an I Pod, w/dynamics flattened, and everything sounding loud. W/all the "noise" around an artist as famous as Adele, recording/sound quality just falls to the bottom of the list of priorities.
I'm afraid people who sit down to listen to music, w/out doing their listening at the same time as cooking/washing their hair/avoiding traffic, are a dying breed, and we as a'philes are nearer extinction than ever before.
I would love it if Adele and her recording people would have an inkling what we're concerned about. But they don't. I really don't think they care about sound fidelity.
If you want great recording quality w/vocalists, reach for your lp's and spin some Frankie, Ella, Sarah, Aretha, Nat etc. Just don't play any Adele, Amy, Duffy, Sam etc.

So simple, and I totally agree. Adele is a great pop artist singer for many people, including many of us, for background music, with our wives, girlfriends, friends, for cooking, for playing scrabble on Facebook, for playing chess on Twitter, for listening on the r.a.d.i.o., on our iPods, laptops, youtube videos, even @ the Royal Albert concert hall.

For audiophiles with an inclination towards the ultimate 'sublimeness', for the absolute you 'are there', with the imaging, the black backgrounds, the low level micro intonations, the dynamic range, the stuff we all love and cherish and always keep improving, the 'audiophila' apotheosis, the sitting in the middle of two loudspeakers carefully positioned after years of experimenting with every fraction of a centimeter, the toe-in with that last degree laser calibrated and perfectly sync to our own particular set of ears, and well balanced with our speaker's unique voicing, ... tra-la-la ... Adele she still is a pop singer for the pop fans and recorded by pop studio recordists, in order to climb the pop chart of the music 'palmares'.

* Billie, Sarah, Aretha, Etta, Diana, Ella, Patricia, Holly, Natalie, Cassandra, ... they aren't pop artists, they are the jazz, the blues, the soul of the female music world for the music lovers like us. ...From another breed, another ladder of raw emotional experiences with intensity @ another related spiritual communicated trance. I'm speaking for myself of course.

Adele she's for everyone else, and for some of us too. ...@ a different level of emotional quality in tandem with the caliber of the recording itself.
I love Adele, just not @ the same level as others.

___________

___________

? P.S. That BBC video about "Jenny"...great!

 

[Johnny Vinyl]

So simple, and I totally agree. Adele is a great pop artist singer for many people, including many of us, for background music, with our wives, girlfriends, friends, for cooking, for playing scrabble on Facebook, for playing chess on Twitter, for listening on the r.a.d.i.o., on our iPods, laptops, youtube videos, even @ the Royal Albert concert hall.

For audiophiles with an inclination towards the ultimate 'sublimeness', for the absolute you 'are there', with the imaging, the black backgrounds, the low level micro intonations, the dynamic range, the stuff we all love and cherish and always keep improving, the 'audiophila' apotheosis, the sitting in the middle of two loudspeakers carefully positioned after years of experimenting with every fraction of a centimeter, the toe-in with that last degree laser calibrated and perfectly sync to our own particular set of ears, and well balanced with our speaker's unique voicing, ... tra-la-la ... Adele she still is a pop singer for the pop fans and recorded by pop studio recordists, in order to climb the pop chart of the music 'palmares'.

* Billie, Sarah, Aretha, Etta, Diana, Ella, Patricia, Holly, Natalie, Cassandra, ... they aren't pop artists, they are the jazz, the blues, the soul of the female music world for the music lovers like us. ...From another breed, another ladder of raw emotional experiences with intensity @ another related spiritual communicated trance. I'm speaking for myself of course.

Adele she's for everyone else, and for some of us too. ...@ a different level of emotional quality in tandem with the caliber of the recording itself.
I love Adele, just not @ the same level as others.

___________

I don't think I could personally disagree with you more. For me she is not background music. To compare her to Billie, Aretha, Etta, etc is unfair as she's just come out of the gate and has I think the potential for a great career and greatness as well. Let's do a comparison 20 or 30 years from now in all fairness. And to add, she is not a jazz/blues singer, so perhaps those artists are an apple to orange comparison.

As a second addendum, do not assume that only the artists you mentioned are for music lovers like us. If that is what you believe then you are missing out big time. Give me Joni Mitchell, Annie Lennox, Kate Bush, Rickie Lee Jones, Florence, Sarah McLachlin anytime.

 

[still-one]

So simple, and I totally agree. Adele is a great pop artist singer for many people, including many of us, for background music, with our wives, girlfriends, friends, for cooking, for playing scrabble on Facebook, for playing chess on Twitter, for listening on the r.a.d.i.o., on our iPods, laptops, youtube videos, even @ the Royal Albert concert hall.

For audiophiles with an inclination towards the ultimate 'sublimeness', for the absolute you 'are there', with the imaging, the black backgrounds, the low level micro intonations, the dynamic range, the stuff we all love and cherish and always keep improving, the 'audiophila' apotheosis, the sitting in the middle of two loudspeakers carefully positioned after years of experimenting with every fraction of a centimeter, the toe-in with that last degree laser calibrated and perfectly sync to our own particular set of ears, and well balanced with our speaker's unique voicing, ... tra-la-la ... Adele she still is a pop singer for the pop fans and recorded by pop studio recordists, in order to climb the pop chart of the music 'palmares'.

* Billie, Sarah, Aretha, Etta, Diana, Ella, Patricia, Holly, Natalie, Cassandra, ... they aren't pop artists, they are the jazz, the blues, the soul of the female music world for the music lovers like us. ...From another breed, another ladder of raw emotional experiences with intensity @ another related spiritual communicated trance. I'm speaking for myself of course.

Adele she's for everyone else, and for some of us too. ...@ a different level of emotional quality in tandem with the caliber of the recording itself.
I love Adele, just not @ the same level as others.

___________

I am not sure how to take your post. First you seem awful condescending towards "pop" music. Remember several of the artist you listed started out as pop artists in their time. As far as I am concerned I wouldn't purchase any of their music save for a song here or there. I have more of an emotional reaction to Abba's "Dancing Queen" heard in my car than anything from an artist such as Diana Krall over a world class 2-channel rig.

Music is like most other "art", we like a piece, we don't like a piece or we are ambivalent. It is possible that in some instances we may dislike the end result yet we can still appreciate the effort the artist put into it. I don't select tracks to play "ultimate 'sublimeness', for the absolute you 'are there', with the imaging, the black backgrounds, the low level micro intonations, the dynamic range, the stuff we all love and cherish and always keep improving, the 'audiophila' apotheosis, the sitting in the middle of two loudspeakers carefully positioned after years of experimenting with every fraction of a centimeter, the toe-in with that last degree laser calibrated and perfectly sync to our own particular set of ears, and well balanced with our speaker's unique voicing," That is the medium not the message the artist is trying to convey.

 

[ddk]

* Billie, Sarah, Aretha, Etta, Diana, Ella, Patricia, Holly, Natalie, Cassandra, ... they aren't pop artists, they are the jazz, the blues, the soul of the female music world for the music lovers like us. ...From another breed, another ladder of raw emotional experiences with intensity @ another related spiritual communicated trance. I'm speaking for myself of course.

There's really nothing to argue about what music people enjoy or don't while its still a personal choice and/or unless it becomes mandatory of course!

For me your list stops with Ella...

david

 

[Mike Lavigne]

There's really nothing to argue about what music people enjoy or don't while its still a personal choice unless it becomes mandatory of course!

For me your list stops with Ella...

david

I love Ella too. but a recent purchase of 7 very early Billie Holiday monos has swayed me to Billie as my top female vocal. she has a way with a tune that touches my soul.

 

[Ron Party]

Johnny, extremely well stated. If I never listen to Diana again, e.g., it'll still be too soon. And I have most, if not every one, of the albums she's ever made, as well as a Blu-Ray or 2 of her in concert.

That video that Bob posted... just moving and beautiful. My wife and I will be sure to see her live when she comes to the Bay Area, front and center.

Live and let live.

 

[853guy]

Billie, Sarah, Aretha, Etta, Diana, Ella, Patricia, Holly, Natalie, Cassandra, ... they aren't pop artists, they are the jazz, the blues, the soul of the female music world for the music lovers like us. ...From another breed, another ladder of raw emotional experiences with intensity @ another related spiritual communicated trance. I'm speaking for myself of course.

Adele she's for everyone else, and for some of us too. ...@ a different level of emotional quality in tandem with the caliber of the recording itself.
I love Adele, just not @ the same level as others.

These things being subjective as they are, there's no way I would include Diana, Patricia, Holly and Natalie in the anything close to the same category as Billie, Sarah, Aretha and Ella, especially if you're talking about raw emotional experiences with intensity. Sorry, NorthStar, I get that these things are personal, and yes, I'm just some guy with an opinion and a preference, but I think history will have a short memory as whether the former defined a generation and left a legacy in the way the latter did.

Music is like most other "art", we like a piece, we don't like a piece or we are ambivalent. It is possible that in some instances we may dislike the end result yet we can still appreciate the effort the artist put into it. I don't select tracks to play "ultimate 'sublimeness', for the absolute you 'are there', with the imaging, the black backgrounds, the low level micro intonations, the dynamic range, the stuff we all love and cherish and always keep improving, the 'audiophila' apotheosis, the sitting in the middle of two loudspeakers carefully positioned after years of experimenting with every fraction of a centimeter, the toe-in with that last degree laser calibrated and perfectly sync to our own particular set of ears, and well balanced with our speaker's unique voicing," That is the medium not the message the artist is trying to convey.

Amen, brother.

 

[ddk]

I love Ella too. but a recent purchase of 7 very early Billie Holiday monos has swayed me to Billie as my top female vocal. she has a way with a tune that touches my soul.

You can say that again Mike! Amazing how she transcends the quality of those poor recordings…

david

 

[beaur]

David,

Funny on 2 levels. First my dad never really liked Ella. He much preferred Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughn, Keely Smith, Anita O'Day and several other to Ella. I managed to break through that a little.

Telling my kids they should listen to Ella, brings an interesting twist in that they think you mean Ella Henderson. Now she's only 20 and I think pretty good for her age but not quite the Ella, you and I think of.

Beau

There's really nothing to argue about what music people enjoy or don't while its still a personal choice and/or unless it becomes mandatory of course!

For me your list stops with Ella...

david

 

[Orb]

I don't think I could personally disagree with you more. For me she is not background music. To compare her to Billie, Aretha, Etta, etc is unfair as she's just come out of the gate and has I think the potential for a great career and greatness as well. Let's do a comparison 20 or 30 years from now in all fairness. And to add, she is not a jazz/blues singer, so perhaps those artists are an apple to orange comparison.

As a second addendum, do not assume that only the artists you mentioned are for music lovers like us. If that is what you believe then you are missing out big time. Give me Joni Mitchell, Annie Lennox, Kate Bush, Rickie Lee Jones, Florence, Sarah McLachlin anytime.

Agree with you.
Just to say it is ironic Mariah Carey has a better voice than most listed so far (lets exclude some of the best classically trained singers); not only covering 5 octaves but great technique and sound.
Shame age is catching up with that voice (one area that the best classically trained singers stand out is how they do not lose their voice quality as early as other singers).

Cheers
Orb

 

[wisnon]

So, no love for Whitney at her prime?

 

[asiufy]

So, no love for Whitney at her prime?

Nope

 

[NorthStar]

I read all the posts, I love all the opinions from everyone; people speaking their musical heart...that's all it matters.
Nothing is taken away from anyone; we all love. ...Some more, that's all; the type of love we just feel deeper musically.

True too; Adele is new. And true too; Billie Holiday is still new.

Our hearts follow the ones we love, I love them all, in their own unique way. And I will purchase Adele's new CD. And I will listen to Billie too, and Sarah, and Ella too.

If we say what we like, we're doing our job. If we go deeper on what we like, we're doing a better job. ...Adele recorded live is best so far.

Love and let love.

 

[wisnon]

Nope

Then perhaps your gear wasn't transparent enough. ROTFLMAO
Just kidding….

but her vocal chops were undeniable.

 

[NorthStar]

On special request:

 

[Johnny Vinyl]

Just so you know. The CD and LP each received their own mastering. The vinyl mastering was done by Ryan Smith.

 

[mauidan]