Adele - 25
Critic Score
Based on 43 reviews
2015 Ratings: #421 / 1021
Year End Rank: #18
User Score
2015 Rank: #321
Liked by 193 people
Sign In to rate and review

CRITIC REVIEWS

100
The Arts Desk

25 is remniscent of all the best things we love about Adele – the soaring, passionate powerhousing along with a fragility and honesty in her exploration of who she used to be.

100
The Young Folks

25 is simultaneously strong and vulnerable, a journey through forgiveness, remembrance, new responsibilities with love weaved throughout each lyric and beat.

100
The Telegraph

25 is crammed top to bottom with perfectly formed songs – elegantly flowing melodies, direct and truthful lyrics and richly textured production – all sung as if her life depends on it.

100
Rolling Stone

Whether she's holding notes with the strength of a suspension bridge or enjoying a rare lighthearted "whoo-hoo!" on "Sweetest Devotion," her incredible phrasing – the way she can infuse any line with nuance and power – is more proof that she's among the greatest interpreters of romantic lyrics.

91
A.V. Club

Her music feels authentic because, as a listener, you believe that these songs about love, pain, fear, and loss come from somewhere real and personal. On 25, she once again has something to say, with a voice that demands to be heard.

91
Entertainment Weekly

Her voice is a national monument, a ninth wonder; whatever she chooses to wrap it around is transformed and taken over.

90
AllMusic

All 11 songs are of a piece—they're all shaded melancholy gaining most of their power through performance—but that cohesive sound only accentuates how Adele has definitively claimed this arena of dignified heartbreak as her own.

90
The 405

25 is a saviour record for a quarter life crisis, a sing-a-long for one of life's most difficult stages. While one of the world's most talented voices questions her purpose, her past and her future, may we feel a little more comforted while we do the same.

82
Paste
To listen is to immerse and revel and emerge more alive.
80
Billboard

On 25, the material is occasionally inspired, sometimes dull, but always serviceable -- and with Adele, that’s enough.

80
XS Noize
Overall, “25” does live up to the legacy of “21” – ok, it holds few surprises and it would be interesting to see Adele try alternative styles and ideas but when it comes down to it, it’s the sense of “every-woman” emotion that is what people respond to in Adele and her ability to share the secrets of her heart with authenticity and no pretense.
80
Evening Standard
The fact that Adele has still managed to find something to be sad about is what lifts her album from being a commercial product that will save the music industry’s balance sheets, to a creative victory above all.
80
Complex

Even as she's suffering the romantic disadvantage, Adele infuses the songs of 25 with a love-drunk cockiness, tossing wine by a loose wrist as she reconsiders these departed men.

80
The Line of Best Fit

While it never really gels musically in quite the way you want it to ... it still has Adele at the heart of everything. Her voice remains a vehicle for her personality and is immune to the album’s few low points. It's so good to have her back.

80
Under the Radar

By daring to go big—and remembering when to keep things small—Adele has recorded the most assured mainstream pop record of the year.

75
Consequence of Sound

25 doesn’t necessarily meet the fire of its predecessor, but it meets its mark — a whole different undertaking when tasked from the top.

75
Pretty Much Amazing

25 is not a bad album, nor is it an excellent one — it’s just good, that’s all. Given her towering accomplishments, Adele doesn’t need to do much more than gift listeners with the glory of her magnificent voice.

73
Pitchfork
Regardless of how one might feel about the spiritual utility of pop music, Adele’s instincts as a singer remain unmatched; she is, inarguably, the greatest vocalist of her generation, an artist who instinctively understands timbre and pitch, when to let some air in. It does not seem unfair to ask that dynamism of her songs, too.
70
American Songwriter

The finished product here seems like an attempt to up the ante on the drama and showstopping that permeated 21.

70
The Needle Drop
UK singing sensation Adele is back with a new full-length album.
70
FLOOD Magazine

25 is sumptuous; it’s ballad heavy, yet every note teems with emotional investment.

70
The Sydney Morning Herald
Adele's voice has never sounded more certain and more dominating. Even the quietest songs, Million Years Ago and All I Ask, seem to expand to fill the space.
70
Clash

These are mostly decent songs but the lyrical landscape feels wearily well-trodden and it’s hard not to just want a bit more from an artist with the freedom to risk anything.

70
PopMatters

Adele is a singular talent, and the moments of brilliance are well worth wading through the few flashes of average.

70
Exclaim!

It's that refusal to commit to anything completely edgy that will keep 25 at the top of the charts and in the stocking of every kid, parent and grandparent everywhere, even if the snobs don't buy in.

68
Northern Transmissions

Even if 25 is a bit dozier than its predecessor, it’s worth noting that some of its strongest songs are its most minimal.

60
NME

This is the sound of someone playing the game so safely they might as well have strapped on shin-pads and a crash helmet.

60
SPIN

Adele and her collaborators clearly seem to understand what the world wants from her — giant, tear-out-your-heart (and maybe your hair) songs that provide the same kind of sobby emotional wallop of, say, watching The Fault in Our Stars while eating a tub of ice cream and looking through old high-school yearbooks.

60
The Irish Times
Wrapped around a pervasive piano-and-strings combination that runs through the album, things soon become a little predictable, and her co-write with Ryan Tedder, Remedy, is simply boring.
60
musicOMH
Next time round it’ll be good to hear her break out of that comfort zone: while she’s earned the right to stick to that tried and trusted formula, a little bit of experimentation could go a long way.
60
Spectrum Culture
Adele has created an album with universal appeal powered solely by her vocal gifts. It goes down easy, but there’s a reason albums like this don’t come around that often: it’s exhausting to feel this much emotion.
60
GIGsoup
Maybe she’s playing it safe particularly because it’s such a widely regarded return and it’s easier to do this than come back with a sound that goes against your normal modus operandi.
60
The Observer

The bulk of 25 is more mindful of using the correct knife and fork, with piano chords dialled up and crunchy specifics dialled down.

60
The Independent

As 25 continues, it’s gradually swamped by the kind of dreary piano ballads that are Adele’s fall-back position ... It leaves things sounding a little too much like they had been designed by committee.

60
Crack Magazine

The album picks up where 21 left off. While the title might suggest change, Adele shows no interest in reinvention, I guess why should she?

60
Mojo

Never one for youthful giddiness, her third album is strikingly authoritative, tending towards the imperious even when expressing vulnerability yet rarely coming over as soullessly efficient.

60
The Guardian

25’s big issue is that, in every sense, it dwells a little too heavily on the past.

60
Slant Magazine

25 is, like its predecessor, weighed down by its soggy, vanilla ballads, few of which manage to escape their '70s- and '80s-indebted singer-songwriter schmaltz the way “Hello” (just barely) does.

60
DIY

‘25’ is as straight-down-the-line ‘Adele album’ as it gets. Adele could’ve done whatever she bloody well liked at this stage – it’s a bit of a shame to see her so content to settle into old habits

40
NOW Magazine

25 is a clear attempt to cash in on the success of its mega-selling predecessor by dealing in heartbreak.

40
Time Out London

The fact that Adele has eschewed reinvention this time around, and instead tried to make a whole album of ‘Someone Like You’s, is a shame.

40
Drowned in Sound

Safe as houses, emotionally manipulative, a touch depressing and entirely forgettable, this is a dreary lesson in how to manage expectations.

RemisReviews
81

Kind of a random album to review right now, but fuck it, why not?

I was kind of in a sadboi piano ballad mood, and I always absolutely LOVED "Hello", so I was interested to check out the entire album and if it holds up to that song. I'm personally a sucker for these Adult Contemporary melodramatic sad Piano ballads, it's my guilty pleasure. So I was hoping this album would just be that all the way through, although I had a feeling it wouldn't be.

And yeah, it wasn't. BUT, I still ... read more

Luconics
79

"21" de Adele era um álbum duro, honesto, se colocava em um lugar de disco único e bem trabalhado, todas as faixas eram excelentes e não era preciso muito esforço pra reconhecer o talento de Adele como cantora e compositora.
"25" acabou por tomar um rumo diferente. A excelência em composição que "21" sempre trazia não existe mais aqui. Agora não é mais um trabalho tão expressivo como era o ... read more

CameronFriezer
79

Favourite: When We Were Young
Worst: Love in the Dark

Hello - 8
Send My Love (To Your New Lover) - 9
I Miss You - 8
When We Were Young - 9
Remedy - 7
Water Under the Bridge - 8
River Lea - 8
Love in the Dark - 6.5
Million Years Ago - 8
All I Ask - 7

Average: 7.85
Quick Comment: A pretty good listen allround with some of the best pipes I've heard. Adele in this record shows a lot of meaning and emotion in the majority of the tracks to describing her feelings about a certain someone. Lyrically ... read more

DAWNN
82

"25" is the third studio album by British singer-songwriter Adele, released in November 2015. The album was highly anticipated following the massive success of Adele's previous albums, "19" and "21," and it continued her streak of critical and commercial success.

"25" explores themes of love, loss, and reflection, with Adele drawing inspiration from her own personal experiences and relationships. The album's sound is rooted in soul, pop, and R&B, ... read more

70

It was a mistake to discover to All I Ask (7 years late might I add!) while just having gone through a breakup. Broke my heart every single time.

cqlanier
90

over-hated but lemonade still better

Purchasing 25 from Amazon helps support Album of the Year. Or consider a donation?


Added on: October 22, 2015