Adele: "Set Fire to the Rain" & "Rolling in the Deep"

Adele is not a well-kept secret. The 23-year-old British soul songstress has been raking in the critical praise, the commercial success, and the hardware accolades over the past year -- and it's continued even after she had throat surgery last month.

The top item on my Christmas list this year was Adele's new live DVD/CD release, filmed at Royal Albert Hall in London this fall. Apparently I didn't fall too far off the Good Blogger Wagon in 2011, because Santa rewarded my efforts, and on the drive from Iowa City to Chicago yesterday I listened to the album twice through. I'm only a little embarrassed to admit that I burst into tears more than once during the 108-minute concert. (Tears of joy, tears of sorrow, tears of recognition, what have you.) Any casual listener might notice that the woman's got some serious baggage to work out via song, but I'd heard these songs before, so I reason that my reaction was due purely to Adele's performance. Her voice is breathtaking. She sings on the edge of her vocal chords, as if she's giving her entire physical and mental being to the music. It runs through her and escapes from her mouth, dripping with emotion and raw with power. The woman's got one-of-a-kind pipes.

I already posted one song from that concert on this blog -- the stunning "Turning Tables" -- and above you'll find the only other official VEVO video from the Royal Albert Hall performance, "Set Fire to the Rain." (I guess they had to save the rest for the DVD.) The craftsmanship of both the music and the cinematography is lovely, but I think the bootleg video below is even better. It's the finale, her #1 hit "Rolling in the Deep," and the video includes a little intro during which you can see Adele standing in stocking feet, wiping tears from her eyes, and thanking the audience for making one of her dreams come true. It's a humbling moment, both to watch on the DVD and listen to on the CD. Just before the end, Adele leads the audience in singing the refrain -- which makes her late entry into the final chorus even more magnificent.

Add in glittering gold confetti and Adele's gleeful bounding off-stage at the end -- she is just SO HAPPY -- and you'll see why everyone thinks the guy who broke her heart is the biggest sucker in the world. The woman will rule the music industry for as long as she can sing. She's promised us a Grammy performance in February and a third album sometime in the future. In the meantime, I wholeheartedly advocate that everyone buy this album. We could all use a good cry every once in awhile.