Live Adele CD/DVD at the Royal Albert Hall

Adele released this combo pack CD/DVD and CD/Blu-Ray last November (just in time for Christmas). Recorded on September 22, 2011 at the Royal Albert Hall in London. It is ubiquitous, sold just about any where music is sold. That means you can get it at your local indie store, or pick it up at your Targets and Walmarts (which under no circumstances should you do-buy music at Walmarts and Target that is!). It went on to become the number one best selling music DVD of last year, making Adele the first artist to have the best selling music DVD, best selling "single" and best selling album. You probably already own it, got it for Christmas or bought it as a Christmas gift. If you love "19" and "21" you will love this. I would not give it my highest review, maybe give it a 4.5 out of 5 stars, for a couple of reasons. Number one is that Adele,  green as a performer, is not a visually exciting performer. In fact she does much of the show sitting down. On the other hand, this doesn't distract from the final vocal performance. Number two, she doesn't vary the presentation of the tunes much from the original albums. You are getting the closest thing to a "greatest hits" live, which is odd to say about a person who has only released two proper albums. Number three is the fact that she drops the "F-bomb" a lot. In fact, I daresay that she uses the word about as many times as Ozzy Osborne does in his live DVD. That is to say that some of her language would make a sailor bluch. What is it about Cockney accents that you can only understand about half of what they say but the F-word comes through loud and clear. Me, I don't have a problem with it. But if you have a tweenage daughter like mine who LOOOOVEEEES Adele and wants to play it loud in her room with her other tween friends, well, you can see the problem.

On the plus side, her voice is a force of nature. She doesn't need much in the way of theatrics to sell these tunes. Really, she doesn't need them at all. The band, actually a small orchestra,  is crack (not on "crack") and conducts itself like it is a pleasure to back up a young lady with so much talent. Adele herself has an extremely charming stage presence. Another plus is the two tunes included that were not on her two albums. Her cover of "Bonnie Raitts' "I Can't Make You Love Me" and her cover of the Steeldrivers "If It Hadn't Been For Love." The Raitt cover, in my opinion, nearly equals Bonnie's, something I would not have thought possible until I heard Adele.

And here is the Swervedrivers cover. I was not familiar with this tune before Adele covered it.

Finally, I met my wife, Kelly 22 years ago, Tuesday, and got her this package as a anniversary gift. It is kind of anniversary month as our wedding anniversary is in two weeks. Even paid a little extra for the Blu Ray. The Blu-Ray itself looks great on our Samsung and is rendered in crisp, clean 5.1 audio which captures every live detail.

This is my wife's favorite song which I want to send out to her during our anniversary month.  Like most guys, I am lucky to have her and fortunate she puts up with my nonsense. This is "One and Only."