Soulful, streetwise debut from the much-hyped Tottenham chanteuse.
Adele Adkin has a shrill voice and an awkwardness to her delivery, but that’s what makes her intriguing. At times she sounds like a smooth Southern soul belle, at others a morose, truculent teenager — a combination, like Amy Winehouse’s jazz croons and street savvy, that is at the root of her appeal.
Most tracks on this startling debut deal with the turmoil of troubled love — blunt, honest missives from the front line embellished with orchestral violins or a gospel chorus. She’s been working with producer Mark Ronson, and it shows with the judicious placing of a few strings here, a Memphis-style guitar lick there. Some songs are humble and spare, some full and magnificent: ‘Hometown Glory’, an ode to Tottenham, is eloquent and moving. She has the vocal talent of a young Alison Moyet, and thankfully this debut lives up to expectations.
© Lucy O’Brien, MOJO, March 2008