Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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!!!

My brother loaned me this Blu Ray. I looked at the cover, read the titles of the songs and thought "not for me". But I respect my brother's taste and he dosen't think everything he likes I will. So I put on the Blu ray and watched the first song. I thought "what a great voice". So I looked down the set list and saw she did a Dylan cover (my tastes usually lean towards Neil Young, Bob Dylan, The Band or groups like Radiohead, Porcupine Tree) so being the Dylan Nut that I am I gave that song a shot. That song being "Make You Feel My Love". She does an incredible version of it. Didn't thrill me that she put the song down a bit during her show but to each their own. At least Amy Winehouse pointed out what a great song it was. She dedicates the song to her. Anyway, I watched the rest of it and was really impressed with not just her voice but her writing skills. A skill that most great singers today don't have. Her stories between songs go from funny to "get on with it" but it dosen't hurt the film. I have read a couple of reviews where people put her down for the language she uses. I say power to her. In this day and age it's refreshing to see someone say what is on their mind and not censor it. I also love the fact that in the 8 minute doc. (as a bonus). She starts off by being interviewed as she gets ready to go to the hall. No make up, curlers in her hair and in a bath robe. Could you see any north American pop tarts doing that.
Will I rush out and buy her CD's ? probably not (this also comes with a CD of the soundtrack) but I am really interested to see what type of career she will have ? I have to admit it is refreshing to see someone with talent and not just a good management company make it!

We love to play Adele's Dvd as background music when we have company over. Great show, good images and sound quality.

Excellent Audio and Video Recording. It is easy to see why Adele is at the top of the charts. In addition to her hits she included a favourite song of mine "I Can't Make You Love Me" that I first heard done by Bonnie Raitt.

Super show! I recommend this if you like Adele.
This show was before her voice problems. It has songs from 19 and 21.

A superbly produced DVD, the next best thing to seeing it live. The laughs, cries and banter with audience made it feel like she was performing in her own private, albeit large, reception room. Still, she was a little, justifiably, awestruck at performing at the Royal Albert F'ing Hall. Her uniquly sonorous voice was matched by the professionalism of her backing vocals and band. Miles Robertson on keyboards, gutarists, percussionist, backing vocals, Rosie Danvers and Wired Strings were all atuned to her singing and, best of all, they all seemed to enjoy performing together not just going through the motions of anothr live gig. Although she sings cover songs exceeding well, perhaps better than the original singer, her true songwriting talent and emotions come through with her own music which can move her to tears (following "Someone Like You'). Adele's attention to quality control was evident when, on one song, she began over after a few bars because she didn't like her singing to that point. To properly appreciate the audio quality one should have a decent speaker system. The accompanying CD was a bonus, it being out-takes from the DVD. However, because of that the flow from track to track seemed a bit disjointed. That is a rather minor quibble. One just hopes that she doesn't have to go through the emotional turmoil of a breakup again in order to write and sing like she does on "19" and "21".

loving it. it's great quality for a good price.. the movie was so moving. It almost brought me to tears!

I am not too happy with the sound quality and the songs are not as ' current' as I would have liked. But I will not throw it away as it will do for playing in the car while travelling. I would not recommend the purchase to my friends.