Someone Like You

Okay, I need to get this out of my system, even if it makes me really unpopular, as no doubt it will. Am I the only one? Really, am I the only person out there who thinks that the Adele hit "Someone Like You" is completely ruined by the fact that she sings: "Never mind, I'll find someone like you"? Sorry, still don't get it!

To be honest, I loved that song when I first heard it, although I found it interesting that a whole Five Live radio phone-in about "lost loves" was initiated on the strength of one song, however heartfelt and moving it may be - especially since most people laugh in my face when I tell them that songs such as "Goodbye" and "Naked" by Deborah Gibson - also a singer-songwriter - are some of my favourites. Adele is a female singer-songwriter, composing love songs on a piano. So is Deborah! Don't tell me: "Oh yeah, but Debbie Gibson sang 'Shake Your Love' when she was sixteen, and we thought she looked silly, and the words were corny." Get over it! She's forty-one now, and has developed so much as a singer-songwriter. (Not that I don't love those early Debbie Gibson hits, personally!)

Anyway, going back to the Adele lyrics: I thought at first that she sang: "Never again will I find someone like you." To me, that would be perfect - if a little obvious. Then I realised that she was singing: "Never mind..." I actually hear a burst of Avril Lavigne in my mind now, when I hear the song: "...on to the next one" ("One of Those Girls"). I don't know precisely what Adele meant by those lyrics, and what I ultimately find more disturbing is that so many people are apparently relating to this as the ultimate love song, but don't seem particularly concerned by the fact that she is talking about replacing one person with another. Hardly romantic - and the chorus, for me, simply doesn't fit with, or do justice to, the rest of the song.

There. I've said it. I think that, having got that out of my system, I might actually start to enjoy the Adele hit again! I just had to say something. Song lyrics seem to get into my head more and more, and I feel sure that I spend much too long on this sort of analysis. Still, I suppose that that's the poet in me...