Dvd: Adele: Live at Royal Albert Hall

[madmac]

I've always had my eye on this one in the stores but then recently, my library picked it up so I rented and watched it last night.

Let us just say that this lady can sing.....and sing well. NO vocal processing here!!. She doesn't need it!!. She sings her songs effortlessly. A very entertaining concert by a very entertaining and talented Artist!, Audio quality is excellent and so is the picture. "Someone like you" brought me to tears!. Each song is described and discussed with the audience as to how it came about and what it means to Adele. I also got a good idea of what it is to BE Adele.

One issue I had with it was the way it was filmed. WAY too many and too frequent camera changes!. It got annoying at one point. I mean, give me 3-4 seconds to take in the shot no?. This of course, is a problem with all too many concert videos. Taken from the perspective of a serious sufferer of ADD or perhaps from the perspective of a squirrel !!!:roll:

I thoroughly enjoyed this and highly recommend it to Adele fans!. If only she would have sung "He won't go". That would have clinched it for me!. :T

[Hdale85]

Yes this is fantastic, although I have it on Blu-ray I believe. Loved the little stories and stuff, this is the type of live concert I like to see and go to, not all these fireworks displays you see now days. Another favorite of mine is Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds live at Radio City. Same sort of style. Anyways I'm a big fan of Adele and think she is easily one of the greatest vocalists of my generation at least. There isn't a lot of true raw talent in these era of time but even if there were she'd be well towards the top.

[madmac]

Yes this is fantastic, although I have it on Blu-ray I believe. Loved the little stories and stuff, this is the type of live concert I like to see and go to, not all these fireworks displays you see now days. Another favorite of mine is Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds live at Radio City. Same sort of style. Anyways I'm a big fan of Adele and think she is easily one of the greatest vocalists of my generation at least. There isn't a lot of true raw talent in these era of time but even if there were she'd be well towards the top.

I agree totally!. Adele is easily one of the best current pop vocalists nowadays. There are lots of mediocre singers out there, heavily vocally processed so much that it sounds like a computer is singing the songs. Other honorable mentions would be K.D Lang, Ann Wilson, and Canada's Meaghan Smith. Ann Wilson is not exactly current but I watched a recent concert video of Heart and she's still got the chops!!.

[Hdale85]

Eva Cassidy was as well, but she's not as current now either and a bit older than I am. She had such a tragic story and beautiful voice.

My favorite performance on this though is easily Someone Like You, was quite powerful.

[aud19]

Too bad about the camera work but sounds like it's otherwise worth a good look, thanks :T

[Hdale85]

Yeah I missed your comment on the camera work, and I agree completely! I even mentioned it to my wife while we were watching it! I think my exact comment was "this isn't a rock concert it's one girl alone with a mic, why are they changing camera angles so damn much!"

[aud19]

Meet the cameraman:

[stuofsci02]

Yes and a bit too much swearing if you have kids around...

[Hdale85]

Eh, no worse than anything on TV these days really. She's from the UK I believe? They seem to swear a lot more over there.

[stuofsci02]

Eh, no worse than anything on TV these days really. She's from the UK I believe? They seem to swear a lot more over there.

Yeah that is really too bad.. The concert would be just as good without the swearing... It takes a good concert that I would like to watch with the family and makes it an "after the kids go to bed" concert for no good reason...

[madmac]

Meet the cameraman:

HA!! I knew it!! (Hehehehe!!). There's more than one squirrel in this shoot though!!. Also per the comments about the swearing.......you are right. However, it gave me some insight about Adele's personality. Crude, crass, and tells it like it is!. She has obviously had some hardship in her life and sings the hell out of it!. This works for me for that reason. My 13 year old daughter could easily watch this concert. It's not the first time she's heard these words in high school.

[Hdale85]

Yeah you'd be surprised at what you hear in even 6th grade and middleschool these days. Honestly I wouldn't have much problem letting my kids watch it as they understand these are not words you should be using and such.

[stuofsci02]

My daughter is 5 and my son is 2, so it is not playing here..

[Ovation]

I don't want to start any philosophical arguments about parenting, but I am curious about something--would anyone here take a young child to a show like this one in person (latish night ending, probably loud, not aimed at people who are not adults)? I share a lot of music with my kids, including a lot of DVD concerts, but I also recognize that most of them were not aimed at kids their age and those few with objectionable language or imagery are not included in the rotation (or else I simply skip around to different tracks to avoid such things). Again, just curious--my own view is if I wouldn't take them to it in person, then I'm not bothered if I can't view the whole thing in their presence at home.

[madmac]

I honestly worry more about films nowadays aimed at kids more than concerts (Especially Disney stuff). There is a lot of cynical material out there that demeans mankind and our lack of values. A couple of swear words in a concert will simply fly over the head of a 2-5 year old. But, violence and revenge that is rampant in films aimed at children can fester in the mind of a child if viewed repeatedly. Also, TV shows like Family Guy and The Simpson's are not appropriate for young children in my view.

[Hdale85]

Family Guy and The Simpsons are not intended for children, just like many other adult animation series. I'd tend to agree with the language thing though, it's pretty hard to shelter them from those words in general (hear people screaming them on the streets these days) and frankly by time they are in 6th grade they likely hear them on a daily basis almost from other peers.

[aud19]

Watched this a couple weeks ago while prepping brunch. Agree on pretty much everything. Great A/V and music but the camera work, language (and frankly, at times immature IMO, banter) was off putting. WIsh I could get an edited version of just the music/singing and minimal camera cuts.

[impala454]

I've got the bluray and it sounds great! :T

Eh, no worse than anything on TV these days really.

There's a screaming F word in the first couple of minutes, so I'd have to disagree.

[Hdale85]

Probably 90% of households have access to youtube and cable TV which you can find those F bombs all over on, not to mention you can easily go walk down a city street and hear it countless times.

Honestly at this point maybe we should stop making such a big deal about it? It's a form of verbal expression and part of our language and has been for quite a long time? They are just words?

[madmac]

Also bare in mind that Adele is quite young......and probably somewhat immature. I personally like her voice but I am of the opinion that she can use a good A@R guy or new producer. She needs to get away from her song choices and start making a different sound. Too many of her songs sound the same with too much vocal pyrotechnics.

[Hdale85]

Yeah she's in her 20's not too far off from me, but I consider my self to be rather mature? Of course I had to grow up much earlier in age but I imagine she did as well. I don't agree on the song choice and what not? But to each their own.

[impala454]

Probably 90% of households have access to youtube and cable TV which you can find those F bombs all over on, not to mention you can easily go walk down a city street and hear it countless times.

Honestly at this point maybe we should stop making such a big deal about it? It's a form of verbal expression and part of our language and has been for quite a long time? They are just words?

I didn't think anyone made a big deal about it. One person mentioned there's a lot of swearing in it, because there is. Some people do care about that so I see it as value added to the discussion.

[aud19]

Yeah I'm not really offended personally but like in the movie Goon, I found the over the top/cartoonish toilet humour/speech to actually be a distraction and detraction from what was otherwise actually a decent story/plot. It could have been a better movie with it toned down IMO as this could have been a better concert disc with the language toned down as well (and not hiring squirrels as the cameramen/editors).

[madmac]

Yeah I'm not really offended personally but like in the movie Goon, I found the over the top/cartoonish toilet humour/speech to actually be a distraction and detraction from what was otherwise actually a decent story/plot. It could have been a better movie with it toned down IMO as this could have been a better concert disc with the language toned down as well (and not hiring squirrels as the cameramen/editors).

I completely agree with your "Squirrel cameraman" comment. That REALLY has to be toned down. Sometimes, all I would like to see a front row, complete stage fixed camera shots of the concert. There is WAY too much cutting and close up shots of individual players and not enough shots of the complete stage. They also have to give up on the "Dirty camera" concept as well. A lot of concerts have a grainy, dirty camera used. The worst for this concept is Blue Rodeo. The Dixie Chicks and Diana Krall have also used dirty, grainy cameras. Sad!.