This sailed straight into number one in the UK three weeks ago and it's solidly staying put. Adele has promoted this song so much it's unsurprising it impacted the charts this way, managing to be number one in 26 countries so far, with an amazing vocal what do we expect? Adele performs beautifully with an understanding narrative. Adele is truly back!
Adele, real name Adele Adkins, had writing block when it came to this song, however she managed to come back and complete it. She has one of those voices that would sound good singing anything, it has been trained to perfection. The song was co-written with Greg Kurstin. Surprisingly the song isn't about a relationship, although that is what many may interpret it as, but instead is about how everyone is getting older and moving on with their lives, and she wanted to sing a song they will hear, and understand. Vocally amazing, I can't help but fall in love with this song even though I am not at all an Adele fan.
The video was directed by Xavier Dolan, which is based off his semi-autobiographical film J'ai Tué Ma Mère (I Killed My Mother). It was filmed at a farm in Québec and features actor Tristian Wilds (most known for playing Dixon Wilson in 90210, I knew it was him as soon as I saw him).
The start launches into Adele phoning someone and not getting through, having no signal. She pulls curtains down and dusty covers. She has clearly come back to revisit the house of her past.
I love the cuts that intersperse of Tristian Wilds, showing us the past and of the relationship she once had. We all daydream of our past relationships don't we? And how they all went wrong.
Instead of a black & white filter, we have a sepia filter instead, this is mildly better, but still a no-no, it adds very little depth into this video, but I can see why it is used.
Overall not a video I would enjoy watching again, however it looks like it's going to stay atop of the charts so the video is probably playing constantly on music channels, so I'll probably come across it once again. I can't say much bad about this video, other than it is unsurprising and expected. Nothing new, nothing great and nothing to make me go wow. But with a vocally amazing song like this, the video doesn't have to be any of those things.
Adele, real name Adele Adkins has quickly become one of the biggest UK artists. She has won a number of awards, and I can't see her being stopped anywhere in the future. She recently undergone surgery on her throat due to vocal hemorrhage. A lot of celebrities took to Twitter and Facebook to show their support to her. She came out fine, and she is a lot better now.
This song never got to number one here in the UK, surprisingly. I'd go as far as saying that it's her signature song. I am reviewing it today because it came on the music channels, but also Linkin Park did an amazing cover version that has got people comparing the two and totally splitting them up on which ones better. They are both pretty emotional and so I'll let you all decide (for the Linkin Park review, click here). The song was written by Adele and Paul Epworth. Paul Epworth has written a number of songs, but he hasn't written many well known ones, which is why I've never heard of him before today. But I'm looking forward to seeing what may be around the corner. This song is emotional and carries through perfectly, I just think something is missing...
The music video is a shot of pure gold, it is perfect in every way and links emotively, exactly how we want it to be. And what do you expect from such a great song? There's a lot to like about this video and I like the simplicity of it and the difficult complexities that can be found, I have to admit it looks difficult to create, but works effortlessly.
This video reminds me a lot of Demi Lovato's "Skyscraper". It's so simplistic but held with emotion that it's amazing. I love the drummer and how the drums makes the water move. I love the empty room, suggesting Adele's lonely and has an empty heart. I like the ballet dancer, it's brings the effortless effect, but also portrays the feelings that was put into this song.
It's all just so perfect. My one thing is the crockery, I know it suggests angry and usually people throw stuff such as plates and other cooking wares, but it just seems a bit out of place. But I do like how the editing has matched it in time to the beat.
Overall, this is a great and moving video, is the original song better than Linkin Park's cover? I'm not sure, I think they are both as worthy as one another. I expect Tink09 is happy I have finally done this video, as she is a fan of Adele's music, along with the rest of the world. I have to give this video this rating, I really have no choice.
I've been aware of Linkin Park for ages, I used to be a massive fan, and so I have a few Linkin Park albums hidden here and there, but I stopped buying their singles and albums because I had a year when I went completely off the band. However this cover version has totally changed my feelings about them, and although I know I will not be buying any of their future material, I would definitely keep up to date with them, and there may be more and more videos of theirs posted up on here. This cover version is really good, and I totally enjoy listening to it.
Linkin Park is a six-piece rock band consisting of Chester Bennington, Rob Bourdon, Brad Delson, Dave Farrell, Joe Hahn and Mike Shinoda. In the early days Linkin Park made a really big impact on the charts, and rarely dropped out of the top 40. However recently they haven been performing as well, however on the Albums side of the chart, they keep getting really high, with a couple of number 1s here and there (which is to be expected as rock bands seem to do really well in the Albums chart, which totally makes up for their not so good attempt at the singles chart). This song was released on their iTunes London Festival 2010 album which was exclusively released on iTunes. iTunes then decided to release this song as a single here in the UK, and it performed pretty well on the charts getting to number 42, which is usually an achievement in the world of rock.
This song was originally sung by Adele, who's voice gives off amazing emotion and you really feel what she sings about, however in my personal opinion I don't exactly like her, now I have no idea what the reason is behind it, whether I just don't like her voice or I don't enjoy her performances, I haven't got a clue. It usually takes me ages until I end up liking her songs, and that is mainly because of hearing it over and over again on the radio. Now Linkin Park's version blows me away. Chester Bennington's voice is filled with tonnes of passion and feeling that you can truly believe he wrote the song himself for the band. Although this song only features Chester on Vocals and Mike Shinoda on the keyboards, I like the ballad, it's interesting and I could listen to it all day and all night for the next twenty years and I still don;t think I'll be bored with it. Chester has this voice that's so magical and interesting, that it glues me to Linkin Park for a couple of months until they stop releasing songs, I don't know why but he is such a great singer, and I really don't think he gets enough credit for it.
Now unlike all the other music videos, this one is a little different, and although it could be considered similar to other music videos, there is only a few that is done in the same technique. This was done totally live, the audience are real, Chester and Mike are real, and so are the vocals and the keyboard. To create a music video like this is extremely difficult, one mistake and you'll either have to start right at the beginning again (which would annoy the audience), or leave in the mistake, which could be disastrous for the music video. So although many people (like myself) don't think much of live music videos, and we all think it's kind of lazy and there's no thought behind it; a lot of hard work and preparation and sound checks and audience calmality and effort goes into this to make it perfect first time around.
This music video is shot slowly, this helps us to connect to what Chester is singing, but also is a technique that could possibly cut off a mistake which might happen, such as a fan crowd surfing (which usually happens at a concert). It is clever how it is done, and I really like the fact that you can hear the audience singing along to the chorus as if there is a mike being held out to them. I really like, also, how stripped back this is, when I first watched it, I expected the drums to come in after the first verse, and then a guitar, somewhere else, which would make it more of a rock song, but then again this would've excited the audience, and they may have been louder that Chester's singing.
I also like how Chester sings it really slowly, especially after the chorus, because of all the fans screaming. I like how he carries on singing just after they've stopped , it kind of gives a real sort of feel, as if you're actually in the crowd singing along and listening to this amazing performance, those people who went to the Linkin Park iTunes London Festival 2010, had one big treat, and to be totally honest, yes I am jealous.
Overall I am in love with the song and I really can't stop hitting the replay button. But on the other hand the music video is not unusual, and therefore it lacks originality, even though it is a cover. Some of the comments on the YouTube Video (which has over 7,000,000 viewers) state that some people think this cover is better than Adele's original, whereas other people disagree and say that it could never beat Adele. I'm a little torn, I so want to be biased, and I think you know how I'd be biased, however putting my personal thoughts aside, Adele has a strong emotive voice that affects a lot of people, and I think Chester Bennington's voice, at times, can be just as good, so I'm planting myself right in the middle and I am saying that both versions (the original and Linkin Park's cover) are just as good as one another. Some people may be surprised by my rating, after all I've said, but I really want to remind you, I am rating music videos, and not the songs, otherwise it would've been higher.
Joe Jonas is one third of a band called The Jonas Brothers, who consists of Joe Jonas, Nick Jonas and Kevin Jonas. They did really well together in the US, but here in the UK they rarely managed to make an impact on the charts. Now the brothers have gone separate ways for the moment, putting their band on hiatus until further notice. There are many different reasons for splitting, but the most obvious reason is that they are having musical differences. This is shown by how different their music are to each other. Joe Jonas has gone down an R&B kind of style, whereas Nick has created a whole new band called "Nick Jonas and the Administration" which is more of a Blues/rock sort of band. There's no sign of Kevin Jonas doing anything just yet, apart from getting married, but it will be interesting to see what he's got up his sleeve.
Now this single by Joe Jonas is extremely emotional, whenever I hear it, I can feel exactly what he is trying to get across, and it just proves how strongly he feels about this song! Joe Jonas explained the song to E! News at the 2011 Billboard Music Awards, this is what he said: “The song is about a relationship ending and you’re trying to get over it, but at the same time you’ve got these mixed feelings… you’re fighting everything of seeing that person. It sounds like a sad song, but it carries a cool beat to it.” Personally I think we could guess what the song is about since the song lyrics gives us the exact same interpretation. Joe Jonas co-wrote this song with Chris Brown (a very well known singer) and Brian Kennedy (who is a well known song writer and has worked with many well-known artists). Together they've wrote this amazing song and I bet Joe had the most input, since he sings it fantastically.
I really like the music video and it seems very similar to Adele's "Rolling in the Deep", as it is subtle but very powerful. And it works amazingly with Joe's fantastic song. The music video starts off by Joe looking unsure about what he is thinking, and he knows very much that he likes this person, but they've just broken up and they don't belong together. The person he is thinking of appears every now and again which suggests that at those certain times he is thinking of her.
When the dress catches fire, it is a direct link to burning of memories and trying desperately to get rid of the person he can't stop thinking about. But I also like the ending, which shows that Joe is still not done, and no matter what he tries to do to forget about her, it is pretty impossible, as what they had was very strong. And thus proving that you shouldn't burn things as you'll never get them back and all you know is that you may get back together, and those memories you had burnt can never ever return to you.
I think you can tell I really like this music video, it is strong, passionate and very thought-out. It shows Joe's feelings easily and links well with the song. The lyrics make it difficult to make the perfect narrative, there must have been loads of different ideas, but subtle was definitely the way to go.
This song was released last month, and in the UK it made number 53, which is pretty good, and it actually bests previous Jonas Brother's and Nick Jonas and the Administration's singles, however he didn't promote it well enough, and he just allowed the music video to promote the song, and to be honest the music channels haven't picked it up enough. This song failed to make an impact in the US as well, which is quite surprising. So for his next single, whatever that will be, will have to make a bigger impact. But with the amount of YouTube view, which is just over 7 million (at this current moment), he might just make it as a worldwide star, but we'll just going to have to wait and see.
Overall they've done well with the music video, and although the narrative could have been more story-like the subtleness works superbly and really helps to get the emotion across, so I have no choice but to give this a rating it deserves, and I cannot wait to hear new music by Joe Jonas.
