English singer-songwriter Adele released her newest single, “Easy On Me,” this past Friday, Oct. 15. The record serves as the lead single for the singer’s newest album “30” which will be released on Nov. 19.
“Easy On Me” comes after a six-year-long hiatus from Adele. Since the release of her third album in 2015, “25,” the singer has gotten married and divorced to Simon Konecki and opened up about living with depression. All of these themes will be discussed in “30” as she mentioned in the prologue of the album which she released on social media.
“It was my ride or die throughout the most turbulent period of my life.” Adele said about “30” on Instagram. She builds a metaphor in which the album was a friend of hers who was always present at the time of her tumultuous divorce.
At the same time, Adele has mentioned how she wishes the album “30” will serve as a message to her young son Angelo, who lived through the divorce with her.
“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,” Adele told British Vogue.
The only song fans have gotten so far is “Easy On Me.” The song is an ode to the “tumultuous period” of her life as she has described on Instagram. The song reflects on the end of her relationship as well as her childhood and the lessons she learnt through love and abandonment.
Lyrically, the song is gut-wrenching. Because the song relates to her agitated childhood, the lyrics at the beginning of the song seem innocent and even nostalgic. She knows that she will be hurt one way or another, but she is almost begging the person who is going to hurt her (whether that is her lover or anyone else) to be gentle because she is still young and it will be difficult to recover from such trauma.
At the end of the song, the singer seems more mature. She wishes the person that hurt her to have a good life and she genuinely hopes that they are doing well in their endeavors.
There is no denying that the lyrics are incredible due to their relatability. The song serves more as damage control rather than her preventing any hurt at all. I believe that at some point or another, we know that we will be hurt or heartbroken, and instead of avoiding it altogether, we simply try to lessen the pain.
Sonically however, I do wish that the song would have been mildly different. For years, almost all of what we have gotten from Adele is ballad after ballad. I was hoping that for her big return to the spotlight after six years, she would have surprised fans with some change to her genre of music so she can become a multi-faceted artist.
Granted, most people expect depressing ballads from the songwriter, and she knows that. But, I think that it would have been more interesting to see her experimenting with new genres of music as she enters a newly-divorced period of her life.
Adele is an outstanding artist and there is no denying that. Her voice and her songwriting skills are distinguishable. While “Easy on Me” was good, I do not think it was groundbreaking. I hope that for “30,” she stops playing safe and starts venturing into new areas of music.
“30” by Adele comes out Nov. 19.
