Adele has released the first track from her new album 30, and it does not disappoint.
The video for Easy on Me, posted on YouTube at midnight, has already accumulated 12 million views.
The song is about her divorce from her long-term partner, and the father of her son.
But what happened? Here’s everything you need to know.
What has Adele said about her divorce?
Adele separated from her ex-husband Simon Konecki when she was 30 – she is now 33. She is now dating Rich Paul, a 37-year-old sport agents from Cleveland, Ohio.
Konecki now lives across the road from the singer, and they share custody of their son Angelo.
It was previously thought Adele married Konecki in 2016, but she confirmed to Vogue that this was not the case, they got married in 2018. She then filed for divorce in 2019.
“The timeline the press have of my relationship, my marriage, is actually completely wrong,” she explained. “We got married when I was 30… and then I left.”
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“It just wasn’t right for me any more,” she added. “I didn’t want to end up like a lot of other people I knew. I wasn’t miserable miserable, but I would have been miserable had I not put myself first. But, yeah, nothing bad happened or anything like that.”
Adele has said that she wrote the song and album to explain to her son why the divorce happened.
Discussing her new album in Vogue, Adele said: “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.
“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.”
What is the song about?
Adele likes to write about her own life, and this is no different.
The stirring video for Easy on Me, shot in black-and-white and filmed in Canada last month, features Adele taking a last look around an empty house before picking up her suitcase, putting on sunglasses and leaving.
Eagle-eyed fans noticed that it is the same house that featured in the Hello video.
Adele then climbs into her car and drives off, passing a “sold” sign. “Go easy on me, baby,” she sings over a piano as she drives past a newly married couple.
“I was still a child, didn’t get the chance to feel the world around me, I had no time to choose what I chose to do.”
Later, seemingly speaking to Konecki and Angelo, Adele sings: “You can’t deny how hard I tried, I changed who I was to put you both first but now I give up.
What do we know about Adele’s new album?
Adele, now 33, will drop her fourth album, this one titled 30.
She announced a release date on social media and the album will be out on 19 November.
She said of the album: “I was certainly nowhere near where I’d hoped to be when I started it three 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.
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“I’ve learnt a lot of blistering home truths about myself along the way. I’ve shed many layers, but also wrapped myself in new ones. Discovered genuinely useful and wholesome mentalities to lead with, and I feel like I’ve finally found my feeling again. I’d go as far as to say that I’ve never felt so peaceful in my life.
“And so I’m ready to finally put this album out.”
The singer then described the work as her “ride or die throughout the most turbulent period of my life”.
And she then described it as a “friend” that “narrates” how she has “painstakingly rebuilt my house and heart”.
What have the reviewers said?
The i‘s Kate Solomon gave it four stars and described it as her best album yet.
She said: “I don’t think any of us, though, were quite prepared for the sheer agony of 30. It mixes Adele’s searing trademark balladry with iPhone voice notes, big beats, and lyrics so raw that you almost feel embarrassed to be privy to them, like you’ve been caught reading her mind.
“This is a record from a woman in turmoil, from raging wine-fuelled nights to quiet teary moments asking, ‘what am I after all this? And why, when we have so much love, did this not work out?'”
“Adele has been pushed out of her comfort zone and the result is an album that outshines her oeuvre to date. 30 is reverent and messy, polished and painful. It’s Adele, but not as we know her. “
The Telegraph’s Neil McCormack gave it five stars and again said it was er best work to date.
The Times’s Will Hodgkinson went for four stars and said “Adele’s voice remains remarkable: pure and unaffected, with that extremely rare ability of hers to convey big drama, small intimacy and throwaway humour all at once.”
But he questioned if Adele, with her Beverly Hills lifestyle, was still relatable.
The Mirror‘s Ashleigh Rainbird awarded it five stars and said: “We hear her bitterness, anger, remorse and shame laid bare in a collection of Motown-inspired, soulful songs that crescendo into the epic piano ballad To Be Loved, before Adele finally concedes that Love Is A Game only fools would play, and defiantly declares she ain’t fooling anymore.
“Divorce never sounded so good.”
And The Sun’s Simon Boyle also felt it was worth five stars, saying “her latest songs combine to form one of the most carefully crafted, considered and brilliant records I’ve heard in a long time – if not ever”.
Despite this praise, NME’s El Hunt thought it was only worth three stars and that Adele’s experimentation had yielded mixed results. “After fair accusations of playing it safe musically in the past, it’s refreshing to see the pop titan treading braver territory – even if the hit-rate isn’t 100 per cent.”
