Yes, it's Superbowl Sunday in America, and that - for those of you not within the confines of the USA - means an inordinate amount of tortilla chips and beer, outrageous commercials, and a competition between the Green Bay Packers and the Pittsburgh Steelers. 

So you have a choice today between listsening to the England Swings show, which begins at 6:00 p.m. ET (close to the game kickoff time) or listening to endless commentators natter about the players while the game is going on. 

May we suggest a compromise? Kill the sound on the game, and tune into the England Swings show. Use it as a soundtrack for football, and you might suddenly find both the game and the radio show are enhanced! 

We've got a pro lineup today for you to hear : new songs by British Sea Power, You Me At Six, Clare Maguire, and Modestep, for instance. Carefully chosen older tunes by Procol Harum, Fairport Convention, and some really old stuff from Alma Cogan. Plus lots more music, and our usual features :

The Fab Four Freakout : The Beatles do Buddy Holly, and do it well.
UK Music News : An icon of movie music composing passes away.
Top 5 Countdown : the most popular songs in the UK TODAY, with a new number one!

Don't forget - it's 6:00 p.m. ET :

In Northern Virginia : Cox and Verizon digital cable channel 37
In Reston, Virginia : Comcast channel 27
Anywhere else in the world : http://www.fcac.org/webr

Chips, dip, and musical history, all on tap today on the England Swings show!

Most of the mentions of Adele manage to compare, and lump her into the same category, as Duffy.
They made their debut at about the same time, singing similar material. 

But with Duffy's non-success last year with her sophomore album, and Adele's issuance of her second, perhaps those comparisons are no longer valid. 

Or perhaps history is repeating itself. 

Think back to the long tradition of British songstresses, and you might see a similar pattern, at least in how time has played tricks on some of them. 

Vera Lynn - revered singer who peaked in popularity during the Second World War, has managed to live on (both literally and otherwise) in the hearts of her country, to the extent of having a number one album just last year. What of the other singers of the era? Alma Cogan, the "girl with the giggle in her voice"? All but forgotten. 

During the 1960s, the rise of Dusty Springfield eclipsed a small crowd of others, including Sandie Shaw. We keep hearing about various biopics being devoted to Dusty, but nobody's mentioned one for Sandie. 

That brings us to the present, and the fact that Adele has been set as a pair with Duffy since the beginning of both their careers. 

This is perhaps unfair to Duffy, who after all made some brilliant music on her debut. "Rockferry" certainly matches "Hometown Glory" in pathos and poignancy, but it seemed everyone was ready for Duffy to screw up her comeback, and equally as ready to laud Adele.

Now Adele has released the uneven "21". It's an album of contradictions, where the singer has done many, many things right, but has also fallen back on some of the hoariest cliches of her genre on the same record. 

"Rolling In the Deep" immediately announces that we're dealing with a new and rougher version of Adele here, one that can belt out blues and gospel with the best. With carefully placed and clever background vocal arrangements, a thumping bass, and a relentless rhythm, the song is a piece of pop genius. 

Then she manages to blow credibility with the standardized arrangement of "Rumour Has It", co-written and produced by the bete noir of modern pop, Ryan Tedder. The song does slow down two-thirds of the way through for a heartwringing vocal, but then jumps back into the annoying thonk-thonk it began with. Bleah. 

Tedder also cowrites "Turning Tables", but the illustrious production here is left to someone else. It becomes very much old Adele here, with swooping strings and stately piano. But it's GOOD old Adele; this is one of the things she does best. It's sugary, sure, but not sickly sweet. 

It takes a little while for the album to kick into gear again, which it does with "Set Fire To the Rain". Now we're back in brilliant territory, as the near-march rhythm builds to a subtle chorus. "He Won't Go" continues the outside-of-the-box trend, introducing itself with a steady drumbeat, another gorgeous vocal, and little flourishes and accents that keep it from becoming mundane. 

There are two ballads that are only piano and vocal; one of them is mediocre, the other wonderful. The lesser of the two is "Take It All", which - like everything else - is sung well enough, but the addition of the gospel choir backing reminds one of the worst excesses of X Factor winners. The perfect one closes the album, and is called "Someone Like You". Already charting into the top 40 on its own merits, here the piano takes on a more tumultuous tone, and the vocal is just downright heartbreaking. 

Which brings up a point about Adele that I'm sure most of you have noticed : are there any songs she sings which AREN'T about being lovelorn and lost? Not on this album, there aren't. Admittedly, this is the niche she's found for herself, and she does it like no other, but sooner or later she's got to write about something else. 

I've got the "HMV Deluxe" edition of the album to listen to, so that adds on a couple of tracks that are covers, done with just voice and guitar. They're both good, too - which goes to show that the more you "produce" Adele, the more humdrum she becomes. A note to her handlers, then : shut up and let the girl sing. It almost always works when she does that. 

One more gem on the album that I didn't mention, and that's the cover of the Cure's "Lovesong". Here's a song that's been done to death already, but Adele actually manages to add to the legend, and Rick Rubin's production is subtle. 

All of this makes "21" a good album, but there are those occasional cloying, annoying touches that I'm hoping Adele will learn to keep away from. The woman is on the way to becoming a world-class and world-famous talent; that's why we have to keep expectations high. She deserves no less. 

I give "21" a 7.5 on the England Swings scale of 1-10.

The UK chart has picked up the pace in the last couple of weeks; this week, we've got two new entries in the top 5, which pushes down a couple of the hits from the previous weeks. 

At number 5, Chase and Status have their biggest hit ever with "Blind Faith". 

And it's deserved. With the background instrumentation an over-reverbed mess of electronics, it's the vocals of Liam Bailey as well as an unidentified female singer that make the tune. The whole effect of the song is anthemic, but sloppily so. On the England Swings scale of 1-10, this song rates a 7. 

The non-mover sits at number 4 for another week. The song is credited to "Diddy-Dirty Money ft. Skylar", which means that Sean Combs not only added a "group" to the song (as he does on his recent album), but also needed a guest singer. 

What he's come up with, though, is a song that has Kanye West histrionics over the concept of Eminem's "Stan". There's a mellow female singer (that must be Skylar) intoning a line about "coming home" (the song's title, by the way) while Sean raps about things he loves and hates and feels strong about. As for Dirty Money, I think they're relegated to occasional "oh! oh!" and "yeahh..." backing vocals. 

The song is derivative, but has managed to be a hit in the UK . . . and is creeping up the American charts. This week, it's reached number 13 in the USA. 

All that said, it's fairly inoffensive. I give it a 6.

Adele drops a place with "Rolling In the Deep" this week, landing at number 3. Her album, on the other hand, managed to outsell everything else in the top ten albums combined. She has now become one of the biggest performers in the UK to never have a number one song. 

"Rolling" is a tour-de-force, retro-soul monster that improves with subsequent listenings. It's got a thonking, thumping beat, good backing vocals, and a great lead vocal. 

Interestingly enough, the song has made a small dent in the USA, a full month before the album is released here. It currently sits at number 84 on Billboard's Hot 100. Will it climb further? Yeah, I think it will, but it will be a (pleasant) surprise if it cracks the top ten. It's a little TOO retro-soul for most Americans to get. After all, this is the country that didn't put Cee-Lo's "F*** You" in the top ten, and that was one of the best songs of last year. 

I give Adele an 8 this week. 

Bruno Mars' "Grenade" drops from two weeks at the top to number 2 this week. It still rules the charts in the USA. 

I go back and forth on this track - it's a little overdramatic for my taste, and reminds me of the debacle that was "Love the Way You Lie" from last year. That said, it's nicely put together. I wouldn't call it a retro-soul track like Adele's, but it does veer occasionally close to that. It's modern enough, though, that Americans can deal with it. I give it a 6.5.

At the top of the British charts, Ke$ha scores her first UK number one with "We R Who We R". The song was released - and went to number one - at the beginning of November in the USA. 

We all know that Ke$ha has very little natural talent, but she has managed to jump on the trends of the moment with panache and cleverness, and has impeccable production people. Just listen to the staccato vocal chorus of the song here, and - even though the whole thing is done with digital studio FX - you STILL want to sing along. The song has a monster hook, and that's what Ke$ha does best. As loathe as I am to admit it, this is a great song. I give it an 8. 

Album review here soon!