Adele Has Officially Entered Her “30” Era

Almost six years after her Grammy-winning release, 25, Adele confirms the release of 30; the fourth episode in her musical Seven Up series.

Credit: SMH

Several weeks ago, mysterious billboards began appearing across the world. Bearing the number “30”, they appeared at major sites including London’s Buckingham Palace, New York City’s Empire State Building, Paris’ Louvre and Sydney’s Circular Quay.

This week, Adele is outperforming single-day streaming records with her debut single, Easy On Me.

This debut track offers an insight into the sonic shape and story of the upcoming album. In an interview with Vogue, The 33-year-old pop queen talks about her marriage and its impact on the album.

“My entire life fell apart and I had no warning of it,” says the singer, acknowledging that she had “bit off a grenade” and threw it into her marriage. Titled “30”, it’s the age at which she married her long-term partner. Adele and her entrepreneur spouse, Simon Konecki, divorced in April 2019. The couple had spent seven years together.

“It just wasn’t right for me any more,” she explained to Vogue.

“I didn’t want to end up like a lot of other people I knew.”

Easy On Me

Credit: Harpers Bazaar

In 2019, Adele joked to NME that “30” would be a drum’n’bass record “just to spite you.”  The first single, Easy On Me, isn’t breaking new ground for the soul singer, however. This sombre ballad is built entirely around a piano and her otherworldly voice. It’s quintessentially Adele, with her uniquely soulful and powerful delivery acting as the driving force behind the track.

Speaking about the song’s lyrics, she tells Vogue,

“It’s not like anyone’s having a go at me, but it’s like, I left the marriage. Be kind to me as well.”

She adds,

“It was the first song I wrote for the album and then I didn’t write anything else for six months after because I was like, ‘OK, well, I’ve said it all.”

Recently, fans took to Twitter to express their excitement about the debut.

Absolute Mess and Inner Turmoil

The official release date for 30 is set for November 19th. Taylor Swift has even pushed her current album’s release date back by one week. This is, seemingly, to prevent competition with the pop-soul sensation.

Last week, Columbia Records share some of Adele’s words in an Instagram post. She explains (of the writing process),

“I was certainly nowhere near where I’d hoped to be when I first started it nearly 3 years ago. Quite the opposite actually. I rely on routine and consistency to feel safe. I always have. And yet there I was knowingly – willingly even, throwing myself into a maze of absolute mess and inner turmoil!”

Adele gave birth to her son Angelo when she was 24 years old, before she’d had the chance to figure out what she wanted to do with her life. Then in 2019, Adele and her ex-husband, Simon Konecki split.

30 explores the dissolution of the couple’s marriage. Adele hopes that the album will explain the couple’s separation to their son Angelo. She tells Vogue,

“I wanted to explain to him through this record, when he’s in his twenties or thirties, who I am and why I voluntarily chose to dismantle his entire life in the pursuit of my own happiness,”

she explains.

“It made him really unhappy sometimes. And that’s a real wound for me that I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to heal.”

The clip for Easy On Me is directed by Xavier Dolan. It visually communicates the story of a woman who is dismantling her entire world. The black and white aesthetic, which switches to colour, demonstrates Adele’s greater understanding, coming to terms with guilt and learning how to put herself first.

Check it out below:

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