"Adorn" features on-beat sub-bass sounds,[4] falsetto howls,[5] irregular vocal echoes, obscured synths,[6] and sparse keyboard arrangements.[7] The lyrics feature brazen declarations of affection,[5] including promises of adoration to a female subject.[8] Writers liken "Adorn" to Marvin Gaye's 1982 ballad "Sexual Healing".[5][6][7] Miguel was inspired to write the song by a series of dreams he had prior to writing it.[9] His girlfriend, model and artist Nazanin Mandi, was also an inspiration behind the song. Miguel later told Peoplemagazine: "I had been on a long trip and was anxious to see her. That's where the song began, with that emotion while I was on the plane. I don't remember how I got from 'These lips can't wait to taste your skin' to the end of the song, but when I listened to it, I thought, 'This is special.'"[10]
Release and reception
"Adorn" originally appeared on the Miguel mixtape Art Dealer Chic, Vol. 1, released on February 27, 2012.[9] It was later included on a promotional extended play titled Kaleidoscope Dream: The Water Preview on July 31, one of two extended plays released by Miguel to promote Kaleidoscope Dream.[11] On August 7, "Adorn" was solicited to rhythmic contemporary radio stations in the United States,[12] and released to iTunes.[13] A remix of the song, featuring American rapper Wiz Khalifa, was released on September 18.[14] "Adorn" charted at number 17 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 1 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, becoming Miguel's most successful single to date. It was also his third number-one hit on the R&B/Hip-Hop chart and still holds the record for the longest run atop the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart, being the only song in the chart's history to spend 20 or more weeks at number-one.[15] By July 2013, the song had reached 1,014,000 copies sold in the US.[16] By June 2, 2015, it had sold two million copies according to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), who certified it double platinum.[17]
In a review for Seattle Weekly, Erin Thompson wrote that Miguel "made a particularly nice choice of metaphor in the song's chorus—'Let my love adorn you.' When a woman hears the word 'adorn,' she probably thinks of diamonds and Dior; Miguel's rich vocals convey the same sense of luxury. That's a man who knows how to treat a woman."[18] SoulBouncecalled it an "electro soul slice of niceness",[3] while MSN Music's Robert Christgau cited the song's "throbbing, garbled hook" as "one of 2012's signature pop moments".[19] Brian McManus from The Village Voice called "Adorn" "the perfect amuse-bouche for the album it kicks off, priming the ears, opening them."[20] At the end of 2012, "Adorn" was named the 33rd best song of the year in Rolling Stone.[21] It was also voted the year's second best single in the nationwide Pazz & Jop critics' poll.[22] The song earned Miguel three Grammy Award nominations for Song of the Year, Best R&B Song and Best R&B Performance at the 55th Grammy Awards, winning his first in the category of Best R&B Song.[23]
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