Adele Live at the Royal Albert Hall

I liked the bluray version but the problem I have with it is that you can only enjoy it the first to fourth time you watch it, after that it becomes evident that out of a 100 minute concert, she talks 40% of the time... so the first time it's new stuff it's interesting the things she says but by the third time the jokes and stories are boring... so you'll go back to the songs on youtube instead or will be forced to listen to the same old dialogue again. It would be nice if the bluray came with a "concert only" feature that would skip her complementing her friends in the audience and her stories about how she wrote a song, etc. I had rated it 7 but after writing this I actually downgraded it to a six.

A wonderful performance showcasing Adele's truly awesome vocal and song writing talents. Clearly the audience was in love with Adele, and her with them - a love fest. The emotion was palpable at times. Adele's beautifully lusty vocal cords, always filled with emotion, establish her as the best contemporary musician IMO. The blu-ray video was truly a treat for all the senses.

The only criticism of the performance was some of the camera work which moved around far too often, the average sound quality (Dolby Digital), and Adele's failure to acknowledge some of the other band members. Particularly Miles Robertson at the keyboard who IMO anchored her performance and added a beautiful musical depth.

You can see why Adele is so popular and well-received worldwide. She is a talented singer who sings her heart out to audiences. She can be down-to-earth and humbled by singing at the Royal Albert Hall in South Kensington, London, England. She knows she has made it when you make Royal Albert Hall. Her singing is stellar, strong and passionate. The best part of the concert is when the audience sang "Somebody Like You" to Adele. She had tears in her eyes.

The first two songs were just terrible, then some of the songs later were okay or not bad, but most of the songs were just not interesting enough, some songs seemed to rant the relationship between two people (definitely male and female, not odd couples) turned sour and estrange. But one thing could not denied, Adele is a very talented singer and artist. I also found she was smart enough to speak and talk to the audiences between songs, that actually could relax her throat a bit, because talking would loose the vocal mechanism in the throat, the neck, the heartbeats. But, there's a big drawback of Adele's concert(s): She couldn't help not implementing the F*** word, again and again, on and on. This habit only showed her root, not well educated, maybe even came from a poor family, not quite happy childhood with bad memories. Her weight, weak legs, bad spine and bad back waist forced her to sit down to sing, she could only periodically stand on her two legs to sing couple of songs. Her trademark stiff cardboard like hairstyle is like Donald Trump's that might be remained the same in the place during a hurricane. The constant using the F*** word, although showed her true down-to-earth common citizen root, but it also downgraded the meanings of her songs: Between the romantic and passionate songs, she inserted lot of F*** words one after another, that just didn't feel all right. Lot of the songs she sang were just boring or with terrible melody. A very good singer, a very gifted natural talented middle aged MammaSan.

Of all the concerts in the present music industry, this one was by far the simplest and that is indeed the highlight of it. The band was brilliant and the orchestra worked beautifully. Needless to say, Adele's voice sounded expectantly top-notch but her humor was something of a treat for the audience. It seemed less like a singer singing for the audience and more like a bunch of friends singing together and having a great time.

Talking about the much vexed topic of the camera direction: Although the footage was prune to frequent change of camera angles, it did not bother me much. In fact, for me, it worked more then just fine. I found myself fully realizing the augustness of the setting, audience, music and the moments that made this concert such an amazing experience. Every shot of Adele was nothing but gorgeous, graceful and well cute. The audience looked very involved and connected with whatever was happening up on the stage.

The two concluding numbers stole the show. Someone like you just made you shed uncontrollable tears while rolling in the deep made the audience sing their souls out! The sheer emotions of these moments just makes this DVD an actual ticket to Royal Albert Hall where you can experience the entire beautiful night on your screen.

So, all in all a pretty well directed concert footage which truly captures the heart of this act both visually and musically. So don't miss this one, sit back and let Adele do what she does best: Make you cry and laugh at the same time.

Rating 9/10

Review by: Usama Lali