It’s common for technically-focussed music-making websites (including vast swathes of our own) to expound on the nuts and bolts of music production, and spotlight those elements that are proven to ‘work’ in the context of commercial success.
With pop music in particular, the view that ‘maximisation’ is critical in a song's arrangement - for it to land with impact - is widespread.
So too is that notion that carving an uplifting hook, rippling with positivity, is the only sure-fire way to appeal to the widest possible audience.
But while the maximalist mindset is certainly worth analysing, it’s absolutely not the only route to appeal to the hearts and minds of potentially billions of human beings.
An artist who can comfortably count her listeners in that enviable tier evades those typical pop trappings.
The hallmarks of the biggest-selling work of Adele tend to be straightforward arrangements, stark, unvarnished lyrics and hooks that are more likely to prompt listeners to shed a tear as they are to smile and sing along.
But, it’s a formula that has resonated far and wide.
Across her 19-year career, the 36 year-old, London-hailing songwriter has been behind some of the biggest selling, most streamed, viewed and Grammy-grabbing music of the 21st century.
Beginning her professional career at the young age of 16, Adele’s gift for melody - and bottling those turbulent waters of heartbreak and despair - was captured clearly on her 2008 debut 19.
That album sported the impressive lead single Chasing Pavements. It was that song's lovelorn lyric that contained the blueprint for Adele's future, immense success.
2011's 21 was a phenomenon. It became the biggest selling album of the 21st century, netting over 32 million sales globally and securing Adele as the second most successful female artist of all time, behind Madonna.
But just what was it about her most popular songs of this period that managed to appeal to so many?
A surface-level reason is of course, the substance of Adele's lyrics, but an equal part is how Adele constructs and arranges her songs to emphasise the weight of her songs' themes.
These choices underpin her vocal delivery, choice of chords, melodic movement and how she and her producers inject a sense of space and isolation in the mix.
While we're aware that Adele has more versatility as an artist than just the omnipresent ballads (see Rolling in the Deep and Set Fire to the Rain), it's these monster hits that we want to particularly dig into, as they define the quintessential Adele song.
What you might call a ‘typical’ Adele ballad (i.e. the titanic 2011 hit Someone Like You, 2015’s Hello, All I Ask and 2021's To Be Loved), tends to begin slow, soft and quiet.
Piano chords, or reigned-in arpeggios tend to be the sole instrument in the arrangement, serving to provide a foundation on which Adele's central vocal can be spotlighted.
Adele's lyrics typically portray a narrative - often revealing the lyrical protagonist’s inner-most feelings (which the listener can infer stem from autobiographical events).
In key examples like Hello, Someone Like You and To Be Loved, Adele is alone - reflecting on a relationship now ended. Both these songs are addressed to the other half of that former couple, and read like a letter. As Someone Like You’s verse exemplifies;
“I heard that you're settled down
That you found a girl and you're married now
I heard that your dreams came true
Guess she gave you things, I didn't give to you”
For the listener, these direct lyrics grant us an unvarnished insight into Adele’s exposed vulnerability.
We’re invited to share an insight into her pain and - for those going through similar experiences - feel catharsis.
It also triggers questions - what happened to the relationship to turn it sour? What’s she going to do now? How will the recipient of the letter/text or conversation respond?
Framing these pained lyrics during the verses, are rather straightforward, circular chord progressions, often based around just four chords.
These progressions are often built on minor keys, or throw in minor chords during a major scale progression.
In the case of Someone Like You, we wheel through a rolling, emotive journey beginning in A, veering into C#minor, descending downwards to the darker hues of F#minor and then culminating in a hopeful D.
These lurching chordal shifts are spelled out in a series of clockwork arpeggios.
Adele's songs are typically recorded on solo piano with added room noise which heavily contribute to the sense of isolation.
Large plate reverbs and close mic'ed vocals sonically tell us that Adele is solo and vulnerable in an empty space.
As Adele's frequent producer, Paul Epworth recounted to Universal Audio, his approach was to use several items from the UA toolkit to work with Adele's vocal; "When you’ve got a voice like Adele’s that sounds that classic, it’s important to try to do it justice with the processing you use on it," Epworth said, stating that the UA 6176 was a mainstay for their recording sessions.
"The UA EMT 140 Plate is one that I use all the time as well," Paul continued. "That was responsible for a lot of the vocal tone that was on the original demos with Adele. That sound helped define the aesthetic of the whole [21] album."
It’s almost subliminal, but its that consideration on how the illusion of space works psychologically that certainly has a creative role in how Adele's best songs resonate with listeners.
We visualise her singing alone in an empty, lonely place. A solitary figure, adrift from the rest of the world.
It's the kind of cinematic, overly-dramatic context within which many of her fans would tend to imagine themselves in when facing a breakup or similar heart-rending crossroads-moment.
Adele’s songwriting is strongly influenced by the world of soul and jazz, and often includes chord voicings that originate from classic soul records, cribbing from key influences Etta James and Ella Fitzegerald.
These can add a sense of nostalgia - a feeling of having heard the song before. They also add a stately, timeless gloss to her songwriting. It serves to contribute to that feeling that these kinds of heartaches have pained human beings since the dawn of time.
But it’s those full-throated choruses that land with the biggest impact.
Typically built up to by gradual pre-choruses, which spin the verse into a new context, the main hook of the song is finally expelled. Releasing the overriding message, or thematic heart of the song. The lyrics often conclude the narrative, or imply Adele's path away from the heartbreak
For example, Hello's chorus:
"Hello from the outside
At least I can say that I've tried
To tell you I'm sorry for breaking your heart
But it don't matter, it clearly doesn't tear you apart anymore"
In these lines, Adele indicates that the thrust of the verse lyric - in which she offers an olive branch of reconciliation to a former lover - is not something which defines, or will define her in the future.
It invites us to find solace in the self-affirmation of the lyrical protagonist. The relationship is over and, though the emotion still stings, she'll find the strength to carry on.
While instrumentation in Adele's choruses tends to build to its most dense (although significantly sparser than other chart-bothering pop), once again, it’s Adele’s voice that is really spotlighted during these moments.
And it’s her voice, really, that all of her arrangements - even her more uptempo cuts - are really built around.
How Adele has learned to hone it has played a critical role in just why her songs are so globally beloved.
As a BRIT School-trained, mezzo soprana, Adele has both a firm technical grasp on her voice’s ability, but also knows what rules to not follow to make sure it resonates with listeners honestly.
“When editing a vocalist, breaths are edited out,” X-Factor vocal coach Autumn Rowe told The Face. “But Adele never does this."
Rowe goes on to say that, “a lot of singers can sing many notes, but never really learn what their sweet spot is. And it is this singular skill that plays such a key role in Adele’s ability to conduct our emotions. In her recordings her voice is definitely the main event. While the production and instrumentation are often great too, everything works in support of her voice. There’s nothing in the way of it.”
Adele intuitively knows when a song is working, when the songs she has in development begin to have an effect on her; “In order for me to feel confident with one of my songs it has to really move me. That’s how I know that I’ve written a good song for myself,” Adele told The New York Times. “It’s when I start crying. It’s when I just break out in tears in the vocal booth or in the studio, and I’ll need a moment to myself.”
Adele’s formula for success can be succinctly put down to one word - honesty. Beyond her lyrics and themes, are those (often minimal) production and arrangement choices that work to signpost a lack of artifice. Magnifying the fundamental emotional core that the song was built around.
While Adele has gone on to become a global icon - and recently concluded an impressive residency at Las Vegas's Caesar's Palace - it's really the empathy of her work that lay behind just why she remains so significant an artist. Channelling her own pain into work which can help to lift listeners out of similar emotional predicaments.
"I think I’m an incredibly sad person, and I think I inherited a lot of sadness, and I think I’m a real empath and I’m a real feeler," Adele told The Hollywood Reporter in 2023. "And I can’t move on from things very easily. It’s like I’ve got hollow legs, but it’s just filled with things that I think I’m getting over, or I think haven’t affected me."
"Music is such an emotional thing, and it’s such a personal thing," Adele continues. "Even as a listener. With my music, and for whoever listens to it, I think I’m not the best singer in the world at all, but no one else can sing my songs like me because they didn’t write them. No one can sing my songs like me, period."
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