Adele "19"

The only bad thing about fresh sounds entering the mainstream is that if they catch on, watch out -- you will soon be drowned in a sea of imitators who are either the calculated cash-in scheme of a major label or, significantly less enraging but wholly more frustrating, a viable artist who lacks the ability to better integrate her influences into her own music, coming across as a unconscious tribute act. Last year, when the U.K.'s Amy Winehouse shockingly translated her deafening buzz into actual, stateside top-10 success, her dark-lit, hard-edged jazz-pop became something new and different for people all over the world to savor...and, inevitably, kicked off a new round of wannabes and "admirers." It started, most notably, with Duffy, whose every vocal move and back-up production tweak come across as watered-down Winehouse on her smash British single Mercy, recently offered to Americans as an iTunes Single of the Week. The Winehouse adoration train continues with Adele, who had her own Single of the Week a few months back with Hometown Glory and now delivers to our shores her very first LP, "19".

Glory, in breaking with the majority of the album, sounds less Amy and more angsty, like a lost late-90s ballad, all doom-and-gloom piano and searching vocals. It's ability to draw you in and keep you listening proves Adele is a striking talent worth taking note of, a fact that comes into even greater light with the song that really put her over the top in her native land: Chasing Pavements. Pondering whether or not taking a big chance for love is worth it, Pavements is a goosebump-inducing sing-a-long that starts slowly and soon builds into a sweeping, heavily orchestrated thing of beauty, a deeply involving midtempo ballad that recalls some of the best singles of the 60s. It stands as the record's biggest highlight and, being that it's only track no. 3, does in fact mean we go downhill from there.

Though she has a much different lyrical slant than everyone's favorite beehive-sporting tabloid star, Adele's every twist and turn work like a plot that's comfortably familiar. The songs are good, sure, and different enough to be believable originals, but not amazing enough to overcome the not-totally-unfair comparisons she'll earn to the Rehab Grammy winner. One of the biggest problems is that Adele's vocal affectations are often so eerily Winheousian that's is as if she fits into that latter category of followers, those who hem too closely to their influence's blazed trails, intentionally or not. There's a chance that this is untrue, that Adele is no Winehouse fan at all and wasn't even conscious of what she was doing. However, a few good listens to "19" really make this forgiving theory doubtful, whether or not the artist in question may deny it.

Not that "19" doesn't have its own issues, similarities to Big Things or not. A cover of Bob Dylan's Make You Feel My Love is a giant misstep, especially for someone trying to establish credibility as a fresh, original voice. The song has been covered so many times already and was all but murdered by the one-two punch of Garth Brooks' and Trisha Yearwood's individual takes on the Hope Floats soundtrack. There is little Adele could add to it and, sadly, she adds nothing at all.

Promise peeks through, though, like in the twinkle of First Love, the slow burn of Hometown Glory and, of course, the endearing energy of Chasing Pavements. Her songwriting is certainly indicative of a bright future, especially when (or if) she someday strips away all the trademarked stamps of her influence(s) and lets her own personal artistic vision shine brightest of all.
B

Download: Chasing Pavements and Hometown Glory, her most unique tracks.

Avoid: Right as Rain, which feels like something Winehouse left on the cutting room floor.