Last time Adele Adkins released a single, she was virtually unknown, apart from to a small community of bloggers and Jamie T, who released her debut Hometown Glory on his Pacemaker Records label as a limited edition.
For her second single, things have changed. She's now with the big boys on XL, the BBC have anointed her 'the Sound Of 2008', you can't mention her name without adding the phrase "the new Amy Winehouse and huge things are expected of her.
It's a good job then that Chasing Pavements delivers the goods - it's very different to Hometown Glory, this being a huge big pop song rather than a stately piano ballad, with a gloriously soaring chorus which allows Adkins to make the most of her most-discussed voice.
At times it's all a bit too slick, nobody seems entirely sure what "chasing pavements" actually means and there remains a nagging suspicion that you could become very sick of it after its 10th week at number one. But for now, this will do nicely.
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