The queen is back to reclaim her throne

Like the emotional storms that tend to rage at the heart of her songs, Adele Adkins’ ascent is an instance of a quiet start swelling into something unstoppable. Born in Tottenham, trained at the legendary BRIT School and weaned on both Etta James and the Spice Girls, she emerged in 2008 bearing soulful, raw-edged vignettes that—on world-conquering second record 21 and equally dominant third album 25—underwent a warp-speed creative leap. Lost, perhaps, beneath the heaped mountain of awards and accolades is her ability to take subtle risks (especially on the high-stakes gamble of Oscar-winning 2012 Bond theme “Skyfall”) and to share more of herself in pursuit of artistic honesty. The Voice, of course, is what knits all this together; an agile hurricane of a mezzo-soprano that can floor you with its force on “Rolling In The Deep” and then, in the midst of “When We Were Young”, stun you with its tremulous, human tenderness.