Adele’s voice and songwriting are still at the top of the industry and the overall message from the album is loud and clear and hits you right in the heart. She really shines on tracks “Easy On Me” and “I Drink Wine” as they fit her style perfectly.

The choice of production and mixing on songs like “Oh My God” have too much background noise, making them feel crowded.

As the average attention span decreases, you need to hook your audience, but some of the songs such as “To Be Loved” and “All Night Parking (with Erroll Garner) Interlude” fail to be attention grabbing.

Adele incorporates her son into the album as well on “My Little Love,” as she stated that the album is helping her explain the divorce with her husband to their son.

The openness of her divorce and explaining to her child may be the reason the album doesn’t hit, as it is too much of a personal writing that doesn’t connect with audiences on a big scale.

One production that really does not work is the 808s added to “All Night Parking Interlude” as the sample of jazz pianist Erroll Garner already works perfectly with Adele’s soothing voice, and the beat from the 808 disturbs the flow of the song.

The album proves Adele is one of the greatest singers of this century, but the music that accompanies the songs fails to keep up with Adele, making the whole album relatively forgettable.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5