Adele: 'Cold Shoulder'

Adele's gone through more in the last three months than most scraggy indie bands experience in their entire careers. Back in January, with her first proper single, 'Chasing Pavements', climbing the charts, the soul siren found herself surfing a wave of unprecedented hype. However, the ever-cynical British public soon smelt the industry-fed rat behind her meteoric rise to fame, so when her debut LP, 19, proved merely alright, the backlash kicked in and fickle sorts across the country claimed they'd always preferred Duffy anyway.

The Brit School grad's new single, 'Cold Shoulder', should hopefully restore some order to her topsy-turvy career trajectory. Making full use of her crisp, soulful vocals, it's an impressive combination of silky funk and insistent trip-hop beats. Mark Ronson's production is at its tack-sharp best, while former Jamiroquai star Stuart Zender is on top form on bass duties. While this won't be enough to appease Adele's sternest critics, it at least goes some way to explaining why she attracted so much attention in the first place.


> Click here for our review of Adele's 19 album