A voice seemingly fashioned from dark chocolate and heartbreak will get you a lot of things in this crazy world —?a record contract, Brit Awards and hype that spills across the pond like an oil slick. UK singer Adele Adkins’ pipes are striking, and she knows what to do with them on tracks like the soaring “Chasing Pavements,” where she lays out a romantic dilemma with perfectly executed mercurial indecision. But when she’s not rocking out, sort of, she’s coasting along the middle of the road (the lukewarm lite-funk of “Cold Shoulder”) when she should be revealing more of the personality she displays on “First Love,” rendering a first breakup with the weary firmness it deserves: “Excuse me first love, but we’re through / I need to taste the kiss from someone new.” If Adele could bring that firmness to all of her material, she might not be struggling to define herself against a certain beehived diva who beat her to the punch.

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