21

The late-2000s mini-invasion of British soul chicks has gone off the rails surprisingly quickly. Amy Winehouse, of course, has been forever lost to the tabloids, and after her promising debut, Duffy for some reason thought it would be a good idea to team up with '70s easy listening has-been Albert Hammond for its follow-up. (Hint: it wasn't.) The third leading light of the style, Adele, has her own struggles on her second album, but it seems likely that she can recover. First off, she needs to stand up to the label interference that led to nearly half of the album's songs being co-written and/or produced by ubiquitous pop hacks Ryan Tedder and Dan Wilson. Although Adele's Dusty Springfield-like vocal gifts elevate even pedestrian radio-ready fare like the Tedder-penned "Rumour Has It," it's instructive to remember that 19 sold several million copies worldwide without the help of American brand-name songwriters. Unsurprisingly, the songs written and recorded with more sympathetic collaborators like Paul Epworth (Jack Peñate, Cee-Lo Green) and Eg White (co-writer of her breakthrough hit "Chasing Pavements") are far superior, most notably the commanding, sexy single "Rolling in the Deep." Similarly, the tracks produced by Rick Rubin and featuring inventive sidemen like multi-talented guitarist Smokey Hormel (who shines on the bossa nova-tinged cover of The Cure's "Lovesong") and British jazz pianist Neil Cowley show that Adele can expand her musical boundaries without capitulating to market pressures.