Adele: "Set Fire to the Rain" (Live at the Royal Albert Hall) and "Someone Like You"

Music on Saturday @ The Reaction

By Michael J.W. Stickings

I wouldn't call myself a huge Adele fan, but I have enormous respect for her -- needless to say, she has an incredible voice and is a gifted songwriter -- and I like her a great deal. (I have both of her albums, 19 and 21, on my iPod and currently have a number of her songs in frequent rotation.)

And, certainly, compared to most of the rest of today's popular music, much of it on display at last week's Grammys, she stands in a category of her own well above the self-aggrandizing bombast and dreck. And I don't think it's exaggeration at all to say that some of her songs are truly great.

On this quiet Saturday of a long weekend (with Monday being President's Day in the U.S. and Family Day here in Ontario), let's take a break from the politics (and the Republican Party's ever more staggering descent into deeper and deeper madness) and post her amazing performance of "Set Fire to the Rain," one of her best songs, at London's Royal Albert Hall on September 22 of last year (available on DVD). It's mesmerizing. She's mesmerizing. And incredibly beautiful.

And... yes, I'm probably more of a fan than I'm letting on.

Okay, that's wonderful, but not enough. More Adele! Here she is performing another one of her best, "Someone Like You" -- at home: