Five Things to Listen to Before Adele Takes Over the World

While I await on Adele to take over the world[1] and bring the music business – and by the business, I mean the industry – to a complete standstill, there is some time to indulge my recent music obsessions. Here are five you need to know about.

Gabriels Love and Hate in a Different Time Elton John called this song “probably one of the most seminal records I’ve heard in the last 10 years.” I wrote about this previously, so check that out after seeing what Elton was talking about in the video.

Katy B Under My Skin The Queen of London club music returns after a five-year self-directed + pandemic hiatus with a cool, stripped-down R&B EP. This was the first single. It’s luscious.

Kylie Minogue & Jessie Ware Kiss of Life Jessie’s disco-flavored album What’s Your Pleasure was, in fact, one of 2020’s pleasures. So was Kylie’s album Disco. It comes as no surprise that when they join forces, it’s a dance floor right where you’re standing.

Silk Sonic An Evening with Silk Sonic As the R&B duo Silk Sonic, Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak want to welcome you back to 1971. Come for Leave the Door Open to bask in the warm glow of The Chi-Lites, The Dramatics, Main Ingredient, and early Kool and the Gang. Stay for the self-acclamatory sass of Fly as Me and the funniest song in recent memory, Smokin Out the Window.

Chris Stapleton Cold I missed the Country Music Awards for the [checks notes] forever^th time but saw this on the interwebs. There is a path from country music to leads to soul music. And there is a path from soul music that leads to country music. Chris Stapleton traverses those paths. This performance was a wow.

I said five things. I lied.

Elton John, Dua Lipa, PNAU Cold Heart (PNAU Remix) A mash-up of Elton hits Sacrifice and Rocketman. When it reached #32 on Billboard, it extended Elton’s span of top 40 hits to over 50 years and 10 months.

Santana (feat. Ally Brooke) Break There is a LOT to like on the new Santana album, primarily composed of collaborations. Given the star power of many of those collabs, one that will go overlooked is this one. It’s quite simple – a lovely female voice and a lyrical guitar – and worth spending extra time with.

All things will be Adele soon. I’ll still make room for all five seven of these.

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[1] She’s already airing a TWO-HOUR(!) special with Oprah (Oprah is how we know this is of cosmic import) as I write this.