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"&lt;p&gt;Adele Adkins&amp;apos; retro-soul debut, &lt;em&gt;19&lt;/em&gt;, was striking less for her songs than for that voice: a voluptuous, slightly parched alto that swooped and fluttered like a Dusty Springfield student trying to upstage her teacher, or at least update the rules. Now that she&amp;apos;s legal &amp;#x2014; &lt;em&gt;21&lt;/em&gt; refers to her age when she wrote these songs &amp;#x2014; Adele has toughened her tone, trimmed the jazz frippery and sounds ready for a pub fight. &amp;quot;Go ahead and sell me out/And I&amp;apos;ll lay your shit bare,&amp;quot; she promises an ex-lover on &amp;quot;Rolling in the Deep,&amp;quot; a soul burner with hand claps and a kick drum whumping like a fist on a sandbag. (The new approach seems to be working: &lt;em&gt;21&lt;/em&gt; has already topped the charts in eight countries.)&lt;/p&gt;\r\n&lt;wm:embed type=\"related\"&gt;&lt;/wm:embed&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=\"../../../culture/blogs/rolling-stone-video-blog/adele-on-21-the-songs-on-here-are-the-most-articulate-ive-ever-written-20110217\"&gt;Video: Adele Breaks Down &amp;apos;21&amp;apos;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;\r\n&lt;p&gt;The A-list hitmakers are here: Paul Epworth (Kate Nash, Cee Lo Green), Ryan Tedder (Beyonc&amp;#xE9;, Kelly Clarkson), Dan Wilson (Dixie Chicks), Fraser T. Smith (Taio Cruz). Adele has real chemistry with Epworth; check his old-school/new-school magic act on the R&amp;amp;B co-write &amp;quot;He Won&amp;apos;t Go,&amp;quot; which gets some lean production from Rick Rubin. She clicks less with Wilson, whose power ballads (excepting the gospel-powered &amp;quot;One and Only&amp;quot;) try too hard. The woman is mutable, sometimes to a fault: Her cover of the Cure&amp;apos;s &amp;quot;Lovesong&amp;quot; is a nice idea lost in bossa nova fluff. But when the grooves are fierce, Adele gives as good as she gets.&lt;/p&gt;\r\n&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Listen to &amp;quot;Rolling in the Deep&amp;quot;:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;wm:video type=\"inset\" id=\"1\"&gt;&lt;/wm:video&gt;\r\n&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=\"../../../random-notes\"&gt;Gallery: Random Notes, Rock&amp;apos;s Hottest Photos&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/21-20110217>