By Samantha Sanchez
Staff Writer
The first thing radio listeners should do once they hear “hello” is say “goodbye” and change the station because Adele’s new single “Hello” off her latest album “25” is nothing worth greeting with eager ears.
While Adele’s powerful voice is usually enough to seize and captivate listeners, in “Hello,” it is no longer sufficient to please listeners. In previous hits like “Someone Like You” and “Rolling in the Deep,” Adele uses her low vocal tones to enrapture fans, and it has admittedly worked. However, in “Hello,” the song’s slow melody, cliché lyrics, and a monotonous piano ballad can no longer hide behind her soulful voice.
“Hello” was released on October 23, 2015 and has been Adele’s first release after three years, with her last release being “Skyfall” in 2012. Adele co-wrote “Hello” with producer Greg Kurstin, and the writing process for this song, much like the song’s melody, was slow and took about six months.
Since the beginning of her musical career in 2008, with the debut of first album “19,” Adele has achieved critical and commercial success. “19” went double platinum in Britain and platinum in the US; the following album “21,” set numerous records in the Guinness Book of World Records; and her upcoming album, “25,” is set to be released on November 20, 2015.
Apparently for Adele, when the going gets tough, the tough gets slow. She expresses her heavy sorrow with long, drawn out notes and a tone that leaves listeners with drooping eyelids. Adele’s music is not meant for upbeat, energetic people – listening to her work will bring them down in seconds.
Adele’s typical lyrical prowess is not evident in the lyrics of “Hello.” She reuses cliché after cliché emotion about the loss of a loved one. She adds no creative license or newfound emotional epiphanies that can make listeners feel any other way than they typically do while listening to her music: sad, on the verge of depressed.
Desperately in love or entirely obsessed? Based off her lyrics, Adele sounds infatuated with the subject of her song. “After all these years,” she still has not gotten over him. Her writing sounds desperate for a past love for whom it is much too late to apologize to. For anyone just recently going through a breakup, Adele’s still broken heart destroys any hope that their broken heart will heal anytime soon.
“Hello” is a piano ballad, however there’s nothing impressive about this simplistic piece. There are no intricate melodies, just the obvious repetition of the same chord progression over and over. The melody of the chorus peaks a listener’s interest for a few seconds before it goes back to being just about as boring as the verses, resulting in a song anyone could easily fall asleep to.
The reason “Hello” has found success in its release is because of three years worth of anticipation that has built up, waiting for this song. All this time, Adele has been suffering from writer’s block. It seems Adele has taken the easy way out of her musical stupor and reverted to a similar sound from her previous albums instead of bringing fans a new, refreshed sound.
The unoriginal piano progressions, bored lyrics, and downtempo melody all add up to create a not-so-epic love ballad. The melancholy cries of Adele in “Hello” embellish her overused message of heartbreak and lost love, a message that sums up her last album “21,” leaving little hope for something new upon the release of “25.”
“Hello” is available on iTunes for $0.99 and is also available for listening on Spotify.
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