I am sick of Adele

The debate about who is the "better singer" brings to mind a relevant IMO story.

Take the example of a great technical vocalist: Barbra Streisand.  She had a great voice,  NO DOUBT,  but IMO she could also miss the point of a song like few others.  On her "Broadway" album (for one good example), she covers "Pretty Women" (in a mash-up with "Ladies Who Lunch", IIRC).  The first song (from Sweeney Todd) is a tale of deranged lust, sung beautifully in the Sweeney Todd soundtrack by Len Cariou, who has no voice at all.  Whatever he lacked in native ability, Cariou offset by effectvely communicating the point of the song - he wants to kill these girls and make them into meat pies.  Barbra sings the song as a light romp in the park.  The Streisand performance was so bizarre that I was left wondering for years whether it was tounge in cheek.

Many years later, I got a chance to put that question to one the many co-producers of that record (who shall remain nameless for reasons about to be clear) who turned up at a local party.  When I asked him about it,  he just trashed her inability to interpret songs or take any advice on the subject.

Diva seems to be the right word. That may alienate and color the opinions of the people she works with, but IMO she's a great vocal technician but a frequently bad singer  I understand that justifying that statement based on that story is just using one person's opinion of one session, but he's a well respected pro and his comments certainly square with my observations.

Notwithstanding her superior technical skills, I'd prefer to listen to Adele (and dozens of other less precise vocalists) than to Barbra.  There's more to singing than range, tone, and pitch precision, so it's always gonna be "different strokes", not right/wrong.  It's just the nature of singing.

I like Adele. She has some wonderful songs. Beats the pants off so much of the top 40 these days. I wish the recordings and mixes were Audiophile quality though. They range front decent to good and a few sound really nice. I think the gems are certain live performances. Not the big giant concert halls but smaller venues. As far as her voice, everyone is unique. I don’t care if she hits every note perfect or not. I like to hear what she sings and she does it good. It’s like I don’t care if your system is technically flat, all that I care is how it actually sounds and if it’s pleasant to me. I'm more than willing to listen to someone with perfect singing if they can actually write as song I enjoy.

This is one of my favorite videos. Sounds fantastic and is just a phenomenal performance: https://youtu.be/DDWKuo3gXMQ?t=38s

Excellent, Marty. Remember when Costello trashed Rondstat, whose version of one of his songs he detested. She was revered at the time, but he found her to sing his lyrics as if they had no meaning. To me, there are "pretty" voices, those of singers who possess nice timbre, and there are "interpretive" singers, who attempt to communicate feelings or ideas with their voice---Blues singers, Johnny Cash, Dylan. Much as a pretty girl will often not have developed much in the way of inner qualities (her looks making that unnecessary), a singer like Rondstat can get by just on the sound of her voice, not what she does with it. Of course, a singer can possess both qualities, as do Iris Dement, Emmylou Harris, and Alison Krauss.

My gf has a rather bad habit of keying in on certain artists at certain times,  playing them consistently to the point where I grow tired if not altogether sick of them.  She was gifted Adele's new record,  on vinyl,  for Christmas and I've heard this record a LOT.  A LOT!

The only negative thing I can offer is that the production is bombastic,  anthemic, stadium-esque on virtually every cut.  I would definitely not mind hearing her in a more "acoustic" type setting,  with a small combo or something like that.

Then again,  I've said the same thing about Aretha Franklin for many years as well.  

olgny, it seems you think Adele would be better suited to Norah Jones-type arrangements--or am I mis-reading?  I'd like to hear Adele with that sort of backing, might be good.
bdp24, I'm a big Rondstadt fan (but not of her popular pop/rock years).  I've always felt she suffered from wrong material and cookie-cutter arranging.  It never occurred to me to point the finger at her, but you may be on to something.  I love her more country/folksy material and her mariachi stuff.  She does a great duet with David Hidalgo (of Los Lobos) on some obscure album.