Project 1001: 21 by Adele
21 was a monster album charting for twenty-four weeks as the number one album, producing three number one songs and one other that cracked the top twenty. Within one year Adele had sole more than seven million copies of 21 and the album has sold more than 14 million over time, which is good enough to earn the RIAA’s Diamond Certification. It’s impossible to overstate how huge this album was. It was received with critical acclaim and lots of awards. 21 is the fourth-best selling album of all time.1 You read that correctly. Adele became the first female artist to have an album spend 10 consecutive years on Billboard's top 200. She's only the tenth artist to hit the milestone, joining the likes of Metallica and Bob Marley.2
The record industry was in very rough shape just before 21’s release. Record sales were way down while experiencing the lowest album sales for at least twenty years. Streaming services were not yet what they are now, and piracy was rampant. Regular people were regularly stealing music. The industry was reeling. Then along came 21. It might be a stretch to say Adele saved the recording industry, but she showed with this album that there was still room for massive pop albums with enormous crossover appeal and the industry saw an increase in sales for the first time since 2004 led by 21. And a lot of artists followed Adele through the door she kicked open including Ed Sheeran, Hozier, Sam Smith, Megan Trainor and others.3
American Songwriter calls 21 a pop masterpiece.4 It’s hard to argue with that. This record was so big and significant that even my 75-year-old-at-the-time mom thought it was wonderful. And I love this album. I’m not sure there’s a better vocal performance on any record of the twenty first century to date. Check out this live performance just a couple of weeks after the album’s release. She stands there in front of thousands of people in the house and millions around the world, rips herself open and spills her guts all over the stage. For many people outside the UK this may have been their first time seeing Adele perform. And I think it is the moment she became a global superstar. Album sales surged 890 percent on Amazon within an hour of the performance.5 At one point she was selling a copy worldwide every TWO SECONDS.6 Incredible.
There is lots of heartbreak in the lyrics and anger, but also some examination by the singer of herself and her willingness and ability to forgive. Adele’s powerful and magnificent voice turns some of the songs, which are mostly about intimate and aching reflections about her breakup, into broad epics, giant even, yet relatable. And they stack emotional punches on top of one another. Everyone has experienced heartbreak so I think most of us can find something with which to closely relate on this album. Other artists recognized the specialness of Adele. "She's talented, she's beautiful, she's human. She has something that touches all of us," said Kylie Minogue.7 “She takes you to places other artists don’t go to anymore—the way they did in the 70s,” Beyoncé said about her.8
This is one of my favorite albums of the last 25 years. My rating:
“By 2012 Adele became the first artist in history to have an album remain at Number One on Billboard while three singles from it top the Hot 100. For Adele this success was unexpected: “really surreal and really moving”. Not reliant on gimmicky videos to get her message across, she sang with a bald honesty that had huge appeal.”9
Pitchfork said 21 was an earth-shattering album, “granting the British torch singer entrée into the pantheon of iconic pop vocalists.”10 From their review:
To some critics, 21 was a “bitter” album, a “vengeful” one. What I hear more pressingly is a woman trying to form agency out of the murk of devastation…The ferocity of these songs isn’t dulled or disguised or smuggled in through tidy pop formulas. She continuously wrestles for control and reaches for a vision of herself across time—before she waded into her lover’s life, or decades later when they’re old—and that device is less about her trying on someone’s vantage point and more about her trying to narrow down who she actually is…Love is hitched to precarity in Adele’s world, always needing to be stated or defended or mourned…Part of this, perhaps, stems from the broad narratives in Adele’s songs. The other forces of breakup tracks at the time, Drake and Taylor Swift, filled their songs with details: a red scarf left at an ex’s sister’s house, an apology for having sex four times in one week. Adele’s writing is allusive. She sings in generalities — hearts melting, last goodbyes, pleas to forgive unnamed sins. 21 asks for your participation. You’re meant to summon your mottled heartbreak to fill in some of the blanks, and tap into the sorrow and rage and remorse that quakes through these songs. “21 isn’t even my record,” Adele told Zane Lowe in 2015. “It belongs to people.”11
Indeed.
From 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die:
“(21) became the biggest-selling British album of the twenty-first century. It was the music industry holy grail: bona fide talent clicking with the zeitgeist. Adele seemed to answer a public hunger for authentic talent in the Idol and X Factor age.”12
Enjoy and listen without prejudice. Cheers!
Prime Playlist: 211. 21 by Adele
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For details about this project, read this: Project 1001 Albums
Charts
• Peak on Billboard 200 album chart: #1, 24 weeks13
• Singles on Billboard Hot 100 chart:
> “Rolling in The Deep”, #1
> “Set Fire To The Rain”, #1
> “Someone Like You”, #1
> “Turning Tables”, #63
> “Rumor Has It”, #1614
• RIAA certification: 14x Platinum | September 20, 201615
Released on January 24, 2011. Here’s what else was happening:
Pop Culture
• Number one song: “Grenade” by Bruno Mars16
• Number one album: Speak Now by Taylor Swift17
• Number one movie: No Strings Attached by Ivan Reitman18
• Most watched TV programs: Two and a Half Men, Harry’s Law, House, The Bachelor, Mike & Molly, Castle, How I Met Your Mother, Rules of Engagement, Lie to Me, Chuck, Hawaii Five-O19
• NYT bestseller, fiction: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest by Stieg Larsson20
• NYT bestseller, non-fiction: Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand21
Some other albums released that month
• No. 5 Collaborations Project by Ed Sheeran
• Live on Ten Legs by Pearl Jam
• Demons by Cowboy Junkies
• Música + Alma + Sexo by Ricky Martin22
Sport
• Jan 23 AFC Championship, Heinz Field, Pittsburgh: Pittsburgh Steelers beat New York Jets, 24-19 and the Green Bay Packers beat Chicago Bears, 21-14 for the NFC Championship, Soldier Field, Chicago.
• Jan 29 Australian Open Women's Tennis: Kim Clijsters wins her 4th and final Grand Slam title; beats Li Na of China 3-6, 6-3, 6-3.
• Jan 30 58th NHL All-Star Game, RBC Centre, Raleigh, NC: Team Lidstrom beats Team Staal, 11-10; MVP: Patrick Sharp, Chicago, LW.
• Jan 30 Australian Open Men's Tennis: Novak Đoković wins his 2nd Australian title; beats Scotsman Andy Murray 6-4, 6-2, 6-3.
Notable Births
TBD
Historical Events
• Jan 14 Tunisian president Ben Ali, flees to Saudi Arabia after popular protests known as the Jasmine Revolution.
• Jan 24 At least 35 died and 180 injured in a bombing at Moscow's Domodedovo airport.
• Jan 25 Egyptian Revolution of 2011 begins with a series of street demonstrations, rallies, acts of civil disobedience, labor strikes and violent clashes in Cairo, Alexandria and other major cities.23
Notable Deaths
• Jan 23 Jack LaLanne, American fitness and nutritional expert, dies at 96.
• Jan 26 Charlie Louvin [Loudermilk], American country singer-songwriter, and guitarist (Louvin Brothers - "The Only Way Out (Is to Walk Over Me)"), dies of cancer at 83.
• Jan 26 Gladys Horton, American pop singer (The Marvelettes- "Please Mr. Postman"; "Too Many Fish In The Sea"), dies at 65 [or 66].24
O’Brien, Lucy, She Bob: The Definitive History of Women in Popular Music, p. 388.
Ibid.
1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, Fifth printing, ed. by Robert Dimmery p. 942.
Ibid.
Ibid.