Adele - Live At The Royal Albert Hall (Blu-Ray + CD)

VIDEO:

This Adele concert arrives at blu ray with MPEG-4 AVC 1080i 2.35:1 codec. This was filmed on September 22, 2011 at the Royal Albert Hall, London. Concert footage is usually filmed in 1.78:1. I am pleasantly surprised to find this a 2.35:1 encode, where the video filled up my entire 12 foot wide screen (using anamorphic lens). Fine details are present on close-up. Colours are generally excellent, with bold and bright saturation, and black levels are above average. But, the overall transfer is only ordinary. (4/5)

AUDIO:

The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless track is much better when compared to the video presentation. Adele's voice is captured in all of its singularity, and the balance between the singer and the band is very well mixed. Fidelity is superb on the DTS track, with ample low end and great dynamic range. (4.5/5)

CONCERT:

This excellent concert finds Adele in fine form, both vocally and in her unabashedly hilarious monologues in between the songs. In the featurette included on the blu-ray disc, Adele talks, perhaps ingenuously, about how "shy" she is and how she doesn't really understand why she becomes such a chatterbox on stage. Be mindful of the occasional F-bomb dropping onto the audience. She's incredibly sweet, good natured and self deprecating in her comments. All the songs are beautifully performed. She was very comfortable singing bare-footed. Her song Someone Like You is so moving that it brought tears to Adele's and the audience's eyes, and so did mine. Rolling In The Deep is the #1 song of 2011 on Billboard Hot 100, and to have the entire audience sing along with you was another moving experience. The entire concert was 100 minutes, containing all the hits from her two albums: 19 and 21.

The album 21 has so far sold 2.5 million copies, and will be the No. 1 album of 2011. In it, Rolling In The Deep was the No. 1 download (5.56 million) of 2011, No. 1 on Billboard Hot 100 for 7 weeks and No. 1 on Adult Contemporary Chart for 19 weeks. Someone Like You was No. 1 in UK and US (5 weeks) with 2.96 million download so far, and also hit No. 1 on the Adult Contemporary Chart. Of course, her first album 19 was also No. 1 in UK. (5/5)

SONG LISTING:

Hometown Glory (from 19)
I'll Be Waiting (from 21)
Don't You Remember (from 21)
Turning Tables (from 21)
Set Fire To The Rain (from 21)
If It Hadn't Been For Love (from 21 bonus track)
My Same (from 19)
Take It All (from 21)
Rumour Has It (from 21)
Right As Rain (from 19)
One And Only (from 21)
Lovesong (from 21)
Chasing Pavements (from 19)
I Can't Make You Love Me (i tune festival 2011)
Make You Feel My Love (from 19)
Someone Like You (from 21)
Rolling In The Deep (from 21)

Along with the blu ray disc comes a CD of the concert plus a lovely booklet with many pictures, including one with her in curlers. From the Live CD, the song Set Fire To The Rain has just reached #1 on Billboard Hot 100. Adele 21 CD which I reviewed separately thus creates chart history as being the CD with three Number 1 songs (Rolling In The Deep, Someone Like You and Set Fire To The Rain) when the parent set still reigned on the Billboard 200. Amazing feat!

It was really unfortunate that Adele suffered from bleeding of her vocal cord, resulting in cancellation of her many concerts in 2011. She has surgery performed successfully to correct the problem, and currently recuperating from her illness. Adele is the Artist Of The Year 2011 according to Billboard Year End Chart Review, with her album 21 the No. 1 album of 2011, and Rolling Of The Deep, the No. 1 single on Billboard Hot 100. With so many awards, I hope she will appear on the Billboard Year-End Award Show. She may not be ready to sing again yet, but seeing her to accept so many awards is gratifying. In the meantime, this blu ray concert is the only way to see her "live" for now...and what a great concert. Highly recommended.

Great News!!!

Adele will be making her first public singing in the Grammy Award show since her surgery...don't you all miss it!!!

Both the DVD and the CD are fabulous and a must-have for anyone even remotely interested in the blues. This girl has written some amazing songs and has the voice and the guts to put her pain and loss and hope out there for all to hear and feel. She's a true original and an enormous talent. Her plentiful "F-Bombs", oddly enough, added to her allure and I for one could not find fault with her sometimes salty commentary. The highlight was the audience participation in "Someone Like You"...very moving. I can't wait to see what beautiful music falls from her lips in the future. Well done! The only down points were some strident notes from her backup singers in a couple of songs and the occasional, slightly off notes by Adele herself...none of which lessened the quality of the vocals to any significant degree and are usually present in any live performance.

As an aside, the service on this order was fantastic...I received it in three days.

Adele rocks. Too bad the recording doesn't.
It's always a shame when a promising artist in a great venue is poorly recorded.
I feel sorry for Adele that for some people this may be the first recording of hers they may hear.
It sounds so distant and like it was a last minute decision to record live.
It really does not do her justice and is hard to listen to the whole disc.
One of the worst live recordings.
And I love Adele!!!