19 is the debut studio album by English singer-songwriter Adele. It was released on January 28, 2008, by XL Recordings. Following Adele's graduation from the BRIT School in April 2006, she began publishing songs and recorded a three-song demo for a class project and gave it to a friend, who posted the demo on Myspace, where it became very successful and led to interest from the record label. This led to Adele signing a recording contract at age 17 with the label and providing vocals for Jack Peñate, during this session for Peñate's song she met producer Jim Abbiss, who Read more on Last.fm.
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An astonishing debut from Adele, whose followup “21” showed us that she is a fountain of soulful greatness. In addition to the standout single “Chasing Pavements”, this album contains more acoustic-leaning songs, such as her beautiful, Calypso-like cover of The Cure’s “Lovesong”, but contains its own share of power ballads, like my personal favorite “One and Only”. But overall, this album is a great debut for an incomparable, incredible voice.
If you’ve only heard 21 and somehow missed out on this beautiful record, it’s a shame. Before Adele became a name in the US, she was tearing up the charts in Europe. “Chasing Pavements” and “Hometown Glory” are two of her best songs of any album. If you enjoy her more popular 21, 19 won’t disappoint.