Yahoo! Music Review

Gig played on 20/12/08

Ever since both were hyped as successors to Amy Winehouse at the start of 2008, Adele and Duffy have been locked in the kind of polite rivalry you'd expect from such carefully groomed professionals. But while Duffy may have ended the year clutching the best selling album, Adele seems to have emerged with the greater credibility, helped along by the four surprise Grammy nominations she scooped at the start of the month.

On tonight's evidence this is understandable. While her insistence that she is more "contemporary" than her rival rather conflicts with the evening's choice of retro covers, and her manicured, dinner party friendly sound, the south London girl has a voice as scuffed and idiosyncratic as Duffy's is polished and processed. She is also far more earthily entertaining, looking happily at home on a stage filled with Christmas bric a brac and roadies in elf costumes, while her rambling, salty banter between songs is thoroughly engaging.

What a shame her material lets her down, or at least half of it. While the opening "Hometown Glory" has a blowsy, evocative charm, too many of the songs that follow are maudlin and meandering. "First Love" is insipid, its melody too frail to withstand her muscular vocals, while "Cold Shoulder" sounds like a Winehouse b-side half-heartedly upholstered with some shuffling trip hop beats, not a terribly wise idea for a singer who clearly wants to forge her own identity. At times the audience reaction for the songs is more tepid than for her anecdotes.

It may be telling that the cover versions fare better. Her take on Dylan's "Make You Feel My Love" is made riveting by her piercing and perfectly judged vocal, though even that's bettered by a heartbroken yet somehow life affirming rendition of Etta James' "Fool That I Am". On songs as strong as this, the sheer versatility and smoky depth of her voice becomes obvious. Too few of her own songs offer the same firm foundations, though "Daydreamer" - which she plays accompanied only by her own acoustic guitar - is one of them, thanks to its lulling melody and old-before-her-time world weariness.

Another is, of course, "Chasing Pavements", with which she closes the show. The stage is suddenly showered with glitter and streamers, in a fittingly triumphant end to her remarkable year, though her smile at the song's end is almost as dazzling. While most sane music fans will be praying that the current vogue for polite retro soul ends very soon indeed, you somehow can't feel the same about Adele.

by Jaime Gill