Adele - Acoustic - Morning Becomes Eclectic, KCRW, Santa Monica, CA, 11-17-2008

There are a lot of so-called "divas" who can really belt out a song. But, in my opinion, Adele stands heads and shoulders above the typical diva by having lots more talent than just an impressive voice. A real test of musical talent is how you do in a solo acoustic format. Adele's music is more acoustic than most people realize, especially her first album, and she's capable playing the guitar. So she excels playing acoustic.

As far as I know, she's never played a full concert acoustically. The closest she's probably come that is publicly available and has great sound are two performances for the KCRW radio station in 2008. She was promoting the same album and played many of the same songs. So I used all the songs from the second appearance, and just the different ones for the first appearance. The four songs from the first appearance start this album.

The KCRW material is forty minutes long, and makes up the bulk of this album. She also has some entertaining talk between most of those songs, though she's usually brief. There was no crowd noise since it was all recorded live at the radio station studio. Sometimes, a guitar backs her so she can concentrate on singing (though she's fully capable of playing the guitar for all those songs, as you can see in some YouTube videos). Occasionally, the backing instrument is keyboards or piano, though it's usually guitar.

But I wanted to make this into the ultimate Adele acoustic album, as much as possible. So I've added five extra songs at the end. Four of those are from her second album, including the all-time classics "Rolling in the Deep" and "Someone like You." There's also a cover of the Cure hit "Lovesong" to go with the earlier cover of "Make You Feel My Love" by Bob Dylan for the only two cover songs here.

Altogether, the album is an hour and two minutes long.

As you've probably noticed if you follow this blog, I'm not a fan of most of the musical mega-stars from the last couple of decades. But Adele is the real deal. If you're not that familiar with her, this is a good place to start.

01 Crazy for You (Adele)
02 talk (Adele)
03 Melt My Heart to Stone (Adele)
04 talk (Adele)
05 Make You Feel My Love (Adele)
06 talk (Adele)
07 That's It, I Quit, I'm Moving On (Adele)
08 Daydreamer (Adele)
09 talk (Adele)
10 Right as Rain (Adele)
11 talk (Adele)
12 Hometown Glory (Adele)
13 talk (Adele)
14 Fool that I Am (Adele)
15 First Love (Adele)
16 talk (Adele)
17 Cold Shoulder (Adele)
18 talk (Adele)
19 My Shame (Adele)
20 talk (Adele)
21 Chasing Pavements (Adele)
22 Lovesong (Adele)
23 Rolling in the Deep (Adele)
24 Turning Tables (Adele)
25 Don't You Remember (Adele)
26 Someone like You (Adele)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15123390/Adel_2008_AcousticMrningBecomesEclecticKCRW__11-17-2008_atse.zip.html

The cover art is a photo of Adele in concert in 2008. I don't know the exact date or location.