Even if it leads nowhere

19 has a student project sound with rudimentary musical tones when compared to her recent albums where they went full-on Hans Zimmer orchestrations.

A look back at Adele’s debut album ‘19’
By Jerrison Oracion, Senior Columnist

Adele’s highly anticipated album 30 was released last week and I’m sure it will be the number one album in the entire world when you are reading this. At this point, she is a diva. But at the beginning of her career in the early 2000s, she was a street performer while studying at the BRIT School. Notable BRIT School alumni include Leona Lewis (winner of The X Factor), Jessie J and the late Amy Winehouse.

In a way, Adele channels Winehouse in her 2008 debut album 19 where she tackles her relationships with boys and her hometown of London.

I am not sure if I listened to the album around the time it was released. Although, I knew her from hearing her songs on various shows and doing PE in secondary school. I particularly remember one of the hit singles from the album, “Chasing Pavements.” The music video of the song is unusual as Adele’s imagination runs free after she witnesses a car crash involving a couple. That is how the album is presented where it begins with her dreaming of her ideal boy in “Daydreamer.” It has a student project sound with rudimentary musical tones when compared to her recent albums where they went full-on Hans Zimmer orchestrations.

Reality begins in the next song “Best for Last” where her boyfriend is cheating and she finds out. She gets frustrated about that in “Cold Shoulder” where there is a section that sounded like Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Some of the songs have an acoustic bluesy sound but have moments that forecast songs in her later albums.

The chorus of “Crazy for You” sounds similar to the chorus in “Easy on Me” vocally. She expresses how she really wants to be with the man that she dated in “Make You Feel My Love”. In the music video of the song, we see Adele in a hotel in New York City while missing her boyfriend and her hometown.

She sends a text message to her boyfriend and waits while a storm is about to land in the city. The album ends with a political take while dreaming around London in “Hometown Glory”. She gives an accurate description of London where it is sometimes smoggy, people go outside when it is sunny, and coming together during political unrest.

After the release of 19, Adele would go on to release more music that would lead her to become one of the most beloved singers of all time and it is another example of a music success story.