Adele‘s much anticipated Skyfall theme song is at last a mission accomplished. The titular song’s reveal has been less than stealthy, months of speculation as to Adele’s part in the project giving way to a Tweeted clue and then a substantial week earlier this week — a falter that we imagine 007 might have gotten a finger wagging for. But all is forgiven now that the thing’s landed, because the song does better than well to uphold the mission and is as Bond-y as a James Bond theme song need be. And as a bonus, it also serves well as a new Adele song, something we’ve all been jonesing for.

Adele sounds ever so glamorous singing over the cinematic strings and wide-screen orchestration, but she also plays it cool, saving the rousing “Rolling In The Deep”-scale vocal show until the end of the song. It’s like she spent the first two thirds of the song cooing over martinis — shaken, not stirred — in a dusky bar, just waiting for the right moment to break out the big guns. You know, Bond style.

Here Adele’s ‘Skyfall’ James Bond Theme In Full 007 Glory [Spin]

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Goosebumps inducing is how we’d describe the great voice of Kelly Clarkson. Thanks to Kelly’s devotion to showing appreciation to her fans by selecting one of their suggested songs to cover, we’ve been treated to a plethora of amazing ones. Last night Clarkson kicked off her Australian tour in Brisbane and beautifully sang Adele‘s “Someone Like You.” Imagine covering Adele, people. Even Kelly was nervous about taking on a song by such a great vocalist. “I’ve actually been avoiding this song. Literally every fan request has had this song on the list. I’ve been avoiding it because Adele might be one of the best singers of all time,” she told the crowd. “It’s very hard to cover people that are rad. It was also a big moment in her career, but I think it’s been long enough. So, I think it’d be cool to do this song in honor of her. Hopefully I do it justice and I don’t suck.” Read more…

Florence Welch is going to need a generous dosage of green tea to go with her two festival date cancellations. Florence and the Machine will no longer be performing in Benicassim in Spain on July 12th and Optimus Alive in Portugal on July 14th because Flo has “sustained a vocal injury” according to her personal twitter. She said of her famously eerie voice that she ”felt something snap, it was very frightening..” She later tweeted thanking her fans for their love and support.

We’ve seen what can happen when artists don’t take care of their most prized possession — their vocal cords. We’ve watch Adele fall victim to this again and again, having to cancel tours left and right, although it hasn’t exactly stunted her climb to the top of the charts. John Mayer had to cancel appearances as well and wasn’t able to promote his May 22 release, Born and Raised.

All we’re saying is take all the time you need, Flo, and rest up your perfect pipes! Everyone here at VH1 is wishing you a speedy recovery.

Florence Welch suffers vocal injury, cancels shows [Rolling Stone]

[Photo: Getty Images]

It’s the second half of the year, folks, which means musically we’ve already experienced an abundance of extraordinary singles and albums with high levels of hope for the remainder of the year. 2012 hasn’t quite been a hit for any other artists in the way that it has for Adele and Gotye. According to HuffingtonPost, Adele’s 21 is the biggest seller in the U.S. having sold 3.69 million copies per Nielsen SoundScan. The amazing thing about Adele being the highest selling artist of this year is that her sophomore album 21 was released in January 2011 and has sold more than a million copies this year alone. At 23-years-old Adele is living the life–professionally she’s on top, and personally she’s in love and expecting her first child. Read more…