How else to explain Adele’s incredible success? The British singer has sold more than 5 million copies of “21,’’ her sophomore album about the trials of navigating love at that tender age. It was a good album, and certainly heartfelt, but it wasn’t a dramatic improvement on her debut, which sold considerably less three years ago.
Why did we love Adele? Yes, it was the soulful voice, which rang out like a church bell, free of Auto-Tune and other effects. She also had a winsome persona and a clutch of hits (“Rolling in the Deep,’’ “Someone Like You’’) that followed you in the car, at the supermarket, in the elevator. What she didn’t have was artifice, and that resonated with us.
Yet it’s telling that “21’’ didn’t merely sneak past its competitors. It clobbered them. At press time, Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way’’ held steady as 2011’s second-biggest album, selling just over 2 million copies and trailed closely by Michael Bublé’s “Christmas.’’
Across the board, we gave artists of every stripe permission to be transparent. It was a year notable for its deeply felt personal statements, many of which weren’t the year’s top sellers they were expected to be. Beyoncé bucked expectations with “4,’’ a soft-focus reflection on entering a new, happy phase of her life as a wife and soon-to-be mother. It was built around a handful of ballads that were considerably more arresting than the first single, “Run the World (Girls).’’
Hip-hop artist Drake, mining his usual themes of isolation and uneasiness with fame, released “Take Care,’’ a title that doubled as advice you’d like to give him after hearing how palpable his anguish was. Rap’s marquee moment came with the pairing of two titans, Jay-Z and Kanye West, for “Watch the Throne.’’ Not every song was enlightening (um, “That’s My Bitch’’), but their obvious chemistry and comfort with each other were the album’s linchpins.
