“Adele spent hours honing her craft at the BRIT school,” says Jenny Howe, amusic teacher specialising in voice at the institution. “She used every opportunity to get used to recording and ended up being adept at translating performance magic in arecording environment.” Aperfect example of this is raised by Autumn Rowe, amusic creative and former vocal coach on the X‑Factor and America’s Got Talent: “When editing avocalist, breaths are edited out,” she explains. “But Adele never does this.”
“Technically Adele is pretty perfect,” argues Rowe. “She is amezzo soprano and sings in her vocal sweet spots. Alot of singers can sing many notes, but never really learn what their sweet spot is.” And it is this singular skill that plays such akey role in Adele’s ability to conduct our emotions. Despite the range and force, we always feel comfortable in her hands; secure in the presence of awoman who is fully in charge of her God-given instrument.
“One of my favourite qualities when it comes to Adele’s voice is her control,” Rowe adds. “She does what so many great voices do and saves the yummy vibrato for the end of each line. So much of her vocal feels intentional, as opposed to accidental.”
But Adele has many more vocal tricks up her sleeve. Enough so that each expert Ispeak to has their own favourite. “She has alovely creak in her voice which she moves in and out of very quickly,” Russell notes. “It has an emotive effect on one level and on another you can almost hear the mechanics of her voice working. As aresult, you hear the humanity within her sound.”
For Rowe it’s all about the wind machine moments: those parts of an Adele track where you wanna grab ahairbrush or break into arun. Atechnique deployed with unashamed relish on guaranteed chart-toppers like Hello or Skyfall. It’s known in the industry as “the belt”.
“In many ways Adele made the full voice belt cool again,” says Rowe. “A lot of artists strayed away from it in fear of coming across cheesy or Disney-like. But what we learn is that if the message is authentic, it can never be cheesy. Real will always feel real.”
“Adele’s voice is best heard raw without the clutter of heavy instrumentation,” says Riley. And Russell agrees: “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.”
Easy On Me, the lead single from her new album 30, feels like classic Adele. But listen closely and you’ll realise she’s still exploring the boundaries of what she can do with her voice. In arecent Rolling Stone cover story, Brittany Spanos describes Adele experimenting with her voice for the new record as “pulling a ‘Barry Manilow trick’ where every chorus is sung differently”.
Whatever 30 brings, we are guaranteed avoice that feels at once nostalgic and hopeful for the future. It acts as areceptacle for all of our own stories and feelings, allowing them to be both universal and very uniquely our own. “Not everyone speaks English,” Rowe reminds us. “A lot of what listeners connect to is tone, emotion, melody… Even if you don’t understand the lyrics to Hello, you connect with the heartbreak and pain.”
Once again, we are aworld united in shared gushy love for aLondon queen.
