This is a journalistic review of Adele’s third full-length LP 25.

Adele Laurie Blue Adkins is a British singer/songwriter performing under her first name Adele. Adele first appeared on the scene back in 2008 with her debut record 19.  This album showed off an underdeveloped Adele who had the vocal style and songwriting skills to write a masterpiece.

That masterpiece is Adele’s sophomore LP 21, which paired Adele’s belting vocal style with well written catchy pop tunes like ‘Rolling in the Deep’ and ‘Rumor Has It’ and deep soul influenced ballads like ‘Someone Like You.’  The lyrical content of these tracks are centered around the idea of heartbreak.

Adele brings her classic pop sensibility back to the forefront with 25. The record starts out with 25’s lead single, ‘Hello.’ This track is incredibly catchy and uplifting with a blast of Adele’s belting vocals coming through in the chorus.

Tracks like this allow Adele to showcase her talents.  She also goes in a different creative direction on songs like ‘Send My Love,’ which starts with just an acoustic guitar and a bass drum kick, which leads into Adele’s vocals. This track sounds like something that Adele’s New Zealand contemporary Lorde could release, with it’s weird transitions and creative production style.

But of course this is an Adele album which means plenty of ballads and power ballads like ‘When We Were Young’ and ‘Love in the Dark,’ which are beautiful tracks containing such powerful hooks that they could be seen accompanying a scene in a film just as Adele’s one-off single ‘Skyfall’ did for the James Bond film under the same name.

The record closes with an even more powerful ballad ‘Sweetest Devotion,’ which could possibly be Adele’s greatest song ever. The song is a -perfect mix of the pop sensibility of tracks like ‘Hello’ and ‘River Lea’ and the fineness of the very somber ‘All I Ask.’

25 is a collection of incredible Adele songs, however it is not quite as cohesive as her previous record, 21.  There is an overbearing amount of soft ballads on this record and it is hard to get the same upbeat feeling along with the somberness of 21.  25 is a sad, beautiful, and soft record but it lacks some of the brashness of former tracks such as ‘Rumor Has It.’

The album can be found on vinyl and CD in stores worldwide as well as on ITunes, but the album cannot be found on any streaming services including Apple Music and Spotify, so to buy this album listeners are going to be forced to purchase it.

Overall, 25 is a great album complete with catchy ballads along with a few interesting pop tunes sprinkled here and there across the record. The only aspect that made past Adele records so fantastic is the cohesion of the tracks across the record.  Any fan of  female pop singers and songwriters should give this one a listen because it is well worth the time and money.

Overall Rating: 8