Adele live at the 2011 iTunes Music Festival in London

You knew this was coming. How long was I going to last posting Full Concert Tuesdays before I got to Adele? Approximately six weeks, it seems, because here she is.

As I've mentioned every time I write about Adele, I'm obsessed with her live CD/DVD filmed at Royal Albert Hall in September 2011. A couple months before that, in July 2011, Adele performed today's concert at the Roundhouse in London, which she says during the concert is one of her favorite venues. Her monologue between songs turns into a conversation with the audience; she asks how they're doing, drinks hot honey and pines for wine, and tells the stories behind her songs and the covers. As at the Albert Hall concert, here she's charming and bubbly and excited and adorably British. The sound is tight, from Adele to the band to the back-up singers, and the space feels intimate, lit with magically floating table lamps.

Have I mentioned that I just love her? Enjoy!

Grammys 2012: Music's Biggest Night

Last night, the 2012 Grammys -- otherwise known as the Whitney/Adele Show -- delivered Music's Greatest Night, including memorable (and mostly-not-lip-synced) live performances, mediocre fashion choices, and plenty to talk about. I'm working on a long-form recap and reaction post for tomorrow, so today's post is a quick tease.

 Get it, girl.

As expected, the evening was owned by Adele, who swept her six categories including Record, Song, and Album of the Year, as well as Whitney Houston, a legendary singer and one of the most famous women in America, who died less than 24 hours before the Red Carpet began. After an opening number by all-American rock star Bruce Springsteen, ceremony host LL Cool J began the 54th Annual Grammys with a prayer for Whitney and a clip of her 1994 Grammy performance of "I Will Always Love You," for which she won both Record and Female Pop Vocal Performance of the Year. (And which, I just learned on Wikipedia, was originally released by Dolly Parton in 1974 and covered by Whitney for the 1992 Bodyguard soundtrack. Factoid!)

There were a few surprises throughout the evening, including a win for anti-award show Best New Artist Bon Iver, as well as adorably endearing performances from the re-formed and 50-years'-more-handsome Beach Boys, who were joined on stage by Maroon 5 and Foster the People, and the "Rhinestone Cowboy" himself, Glen Campbell, who was recently diagnosed with Alzheimer's but showed no signs of it while singing with the Band Perry and Blake Shelton.

Tune in tomorrow for the full list of winners and more on the evening's performances, which also featured the five-win Foo Fighters; duets between Alicia Keys and Bonnie Raitt, Tony Bennett and Carrie Underwood, Jason Aldean and Kelly Clarkson, and Chris Martin and Rihanna; as well as a stitched-up and strong-as-ever Adele, an energetically retro and fleet-footed Bruno Mars, a mostly lip-sycned but dancin' Chris Brown, a plain-dressed and banjo-laden Taylor Swift, a stoic and bluesy Sir Paul McCartney, a metallic and newly single Katy Perry, an ever-creepy but head-bang-worthy deadmau5, a possessed and even creepier Nicki Minaj, a Whitney tribute by a teary-eyed Jennifer Hudson, and a full-on guitar superstar orgy led by Sir Paul himself.

UPDATE: Check out the full recap here!

Adele: "Don't You Remember"

I'm on the road today, so here's a quickie. I am still obsessed with the Adele album I mentioned at the end of December, thus today's seven-hour bus ride between Chicago and Cincinnati will feature this song in heavy rotation. The lyrics are a total bummer -- she's talking to the guy who used to love her (you know, the one who broke her heart, leading her to write songs that have subsequently made her millions of dollars), and she's pretty much begging him to take her back. "Don't you remember the reason you loved me before?" she cries. "I gave you the space so you could breathe, I kept my distance so you could be free."

Apparently that didn't really work.

But Adele has got no time for pride, either in the lyrics or in her appearance in this video. It's such a treat to see Adele sans her usual cake of makeup. She looks like she may have just gotten up off the couch, after sitting there crying for the last few months.

 Pull yourself together, woman.

Crying about how rich she is, that is.

Tune in tomorrow for an exciting post from "abroad" (ie Cincinnati), and don't miss Adele performing on the Grammys this Sunday night!

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.

Adele: "Turning Tables"

This year's Grammy nominations were announced on Wednesday. See the full list here. As expected, Adele cleaned up, receiving six nominations in six important categories:

Record of the Year – Rolling In The Deep
Song of the Year – "Rolling In The Deep"
Album of the Year – 21
Best Pop Solo Performance – "Someone Like You"
Best Pop Vocal Album – 21
Best Short Form Music Video – "Rolling In The Deep"

I've listened to 21 at least once a day for the last two months, so this news item is the perfect excuse to post another Adele song. Today's performance, unlike the one filmed in her home, is from her recently released DVD and was filmed at the Royal Albert Hall in London this past September, before her throat surgery. The woman knows how to mount a dramatic presence, whether she's alone in her living room or singing in front of thousands, backed by a full orchestra.

The Grammys will be aired on February 12, 2012, and Adele is scheduled to perform. She's telling the press that her throat will be ready by then, though she won't have much time to rehearse beforehand. The world wishes her the best in her recovery, and I'm sure I'm not the only person hoping she'll head back to the studio after she collects her trophies.

Have a great weekend!

Adele: "Someone Like You"

I'm obsessed with this song. It's off Adele's second album, released this year and immediately met with an exceptional amount of critical praise, especially considering it's her sophomore album. The sophomore album is typically a black hole where artists struggle to balance successful elements of the first album with expectations and predilections for the future. But not Adele. The radio simply cannot get enough of her. Even this song, which is a total downer about seeing an ex much later in life when they're doing better than you, has set the airwaves on fire. She's expected to sweep the Grammys in February, though she already won two in 2009 for Best New Artist and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance*.

So we're all obsessed with Adele (last name Adkins) this year. Why? It's not because she's writing songs about things we've never heard before; she talks about love and loss and empowerment and depression. Been there, done that. No, we're obsessed because she's an incredible. fucking. singer. Simply unmatched. And singing is really, really hard. It's not just notes and rhythms -- it's tone, attitude, presence. Once you master the technique, you still need to mean the words you sing.

Yesterday we looked at a Gaga performance, the choreography of movement, the coordination of outfit, the presentation of a character. Adele does none of that, but her performance is just as sophisticated, just as refined. She just leaves the batshit crazy part out of it.

The first minute of this video is spent with Adele, talking about the song and its meaning. The performance begins around the one minute marker, and it's a little slower than the album version -- all the better to draw out the notes, linger, suffer through them again. She gesticulates, her arms pushing the air with her hands as she pushes the notes with her breath in tandem, shaping the notes with her fingers. More force for more difficult runs, keeping time. She doesn't hit the high notes of the album version (possible evidence over her intermittent voice troubles), but everything she sings is soaked in power and regret.

Standing in her living room, younger than seems possible given her wisdom, one of the best songstresses alive performs for the whole world. This is what YouTube is for.

* It seems like they're getting pretty specific with these categories, doesn't it? I wonder who won Best Male Non-Pop Cello Performance, or Best Hermaphrodite Harmonica/Bass Drum Combination Performance.