The lovely and iridescent British icon, Adele Adkins, has taught us everything there is to know about love. Her albums cover a range of emotions; 19, all about learning to love and experiencing it all for the first time, to her second album, 21, learning about heartbreak and the raw emotion that comes with it, and finally with her third album, 25, where love was everything and nothing all at once. Adele has expressed everything we have felt or will feel in the future by simply doing what she loves and giving us the opportunity to love her for it.
Recently on November 19, 2021 (5 years after her last release of 25) Adele released her newest album, 30, a memoir of the last few years of her life filled with harsh feelings of divorce, heartbreak, guilt, and growth. This album holds the most vulnerable and touching side of Adele we have ever seen or heard. Listening to this album alone is an experience in and of itself, and is something I highly recommend doing.
So as a young female generation, and knowing how we have all grown up with Adele, feeling everything she has even without living it, here are my reviews of her latest album. Spolier alert, it’s a 10/10.
Strangers by Nature
Feeling: Open
Starting her album with the lyric, “I’ll be taking flowers to the cemetery of my heart” explains the rollercoaster of emotions you will feel listening to this album. This song has a kind of old-fashioned and eerie violin-driven sound that makes the song so easy to listen to, and so hard to stop listening to. Fall into Strangers By Nature and let your heart open up to whatever it needs to.
Easy on me
Feeling: Relatable
The only song Adele released before the rest of the album, Easy On Me is a journal entry to the world. The confession she gives about being a child and “having no time to choose” is so relatable and real to every single one of us who feels like they’re racing the clock and impulsively deciding what their future is going to be. Filled with riffs and runs, this song is reassuring us that if Adele can get through it, we can too.
My little love
Feeling: Everything
With her somber beginning and lullaby-like tone, Adele sings to her son, Angelo, and fills our hearts with the weight she has felt ever since her split with her ex-husband. The audio clips of past conversations with her and her son are heart-wrenching additions to the song that grab us by our souls and rip our hearts out entirely. This diary-like honesty can be too much to take in and cause an overflow of emotion to absolutely anyone with ears.
If you listen to anything on this album, listen to this song! If you can give up the time for a 10-minute version of All Too Well by Taylor Swift, you can do the same for Adele’s 6-minute My Little Love.
cry your heart out
Feeling: Cleansed
This feel-good and therapeutic song is exactly what we’ve been needing in our new, complicated, and exhausting young adult lives. With simple words, an angelic echo, and an unforgettable beat, every issue we have seems to fix itself immediately and disappear while listening. The mantra of crying our hearts out is now concrete and acceptable, and since Adele advocates for it, so will the rest of the world! So now whenever life gets even a little too hard, play this song and dance along. Or if you’re really feeling it, cry your heart out!
oh my god
Feeling: Impulsive
Oh My God is a masterpiece. Retelling that impulsive feeling of wanting to do exactly what you aren’t supposed to do, Adele takes us on an adrenaline rush of possibility and angst. The upbeat and possessive rhythm in Oh My God is compelling and quickly makes this song a non-stop listen. Adele’s line, “I am a grown woman and I do what I want to do” in her second verse shows that new and exciting mindset of independence and control over her life. It’s the same control we think we have over our impulsive decisions too, once again making her relatable and having the song hit a little too close to home.
can i get it
Feeling: Empowered
Adele sings about that oh-so-familiar feeling of craving someone who won’t give you that straight up yes-or-no answer in Can I Get It. That desperate emotion of wanting and longing for that one and the only person who’s sending mixed signals is nothing but exhausting, and we’ve all been there. However, instead of complaining about it, Adele takes back her control and asks for it herself. This seemingly sad topic turns into an empowering anthem about knowing what you want and taking actions into your own hands to get it.
I drink wine
Feeling: Accountable
I Drink Wine is a beautiful composition of insecurities and self-doubt brought together with self-improvement and a growing perspective. From hearing, “I hope to get over myself… and stop trying to be somebody else” to, “I just want to love you… cause you just want me” you feel that same doubt, pain, distrust, antagonizing guilt sweep over you as you realize it isn’t always everyone else’s fault when things go wrong. Adele’s accountability was vulnerable yet powerful; you kind of just want to curl up in a ball and cry with this song on repeat for forever.
The point is that there’s strength in vulnerability, and Adele is teaching us that here.
All night parking
Feeling: Dreamy
This song is the shortest on the album, but personally, one of my favorites! This short interlude speaks of that new and easy infatuation you get when you meet someone different and mysterious. That never-wanting-to-leave-and-stay-with-them-forever feeling we love so much! It’s such a cute and calming reset of emotions that makes you feel hopeful about the future possibility of meeting someone else, or falling for that interesting cutie from class. Whichever it may be, dreaming about them all night long is definitely something we can all say we’ve done. This kind reminder tells us that love doesn’t have to be hard, and you don’t have to worry about it all the time. Plus, we can always dream about it.
woman like me
Feeling: So Much
Woman Like Me is a perfect reminder that men ain’t sh*t! Adele is describing the disappointment it is to have a man in your life that isn’t worthy of you. Through their complacency and inconsistency, Adele is singing about the burden of dragging around a man that can’t be accountable for himself or his actions. It’s a breakthrough piece of realization and raw emotion. The lyrical setup reminds you of that classic and unapologetic Amy Winehouse honesty, and the vocal skill Adele carries is everything and more. This is a song for all the girl bosses out there, keep girl bossing! And only go for those who are capable of keeping a woman like you.
Hold on
Feeling: Hopeful
Seeming to be a throwback from Adele’s 21 album, the classic and lonely piano solos Hold On has will remind you of an earlier time when Someone Like You was on the radio every day, and we were awestruck by the pure talent Adele held. This song is a hopeful and real look in the mirror, reassuring us that everything will work out as long as we hold on to it. Adele is reminding us that we are nothing less because things have not worked out the way we wished they would have, and everything will come to us at the right time. We do not chase, we attract, “just be patient.”
to be loved
Feeling: Heartbroken
Adele brings her exhausted emotions into the words of To Be Loved and expresses her heartbreak so strongly we can all feel it. Her “let it be known” riffs grab at your chest and hold you as you hear her heartbreak, feeling as if we are in her shoes and we are going through it too, even though we are probably all in our early 20’s and haven’t been divorced yet! However, since Adele has released this song, we all hurt, cry, and want to protect Adele until the end of everything.
Love is a game
Feeling: Real
With Love is a Game‘s fairytale-like intro, you would think this album has a happy ending to it. However, we can never expect a happy ending from Adele, maybe a more practical one, that can also be happy, but that’s never promised. Love is a Game tells the story of love and how it just might not be for everyone. Adele questions why she would ever “self-inflict the pain” that love brings, and to keep it simple says that, “love is a game for fools.” But aren’t we all fools? Don’t we all want love? Even if sadly it isn’t always what we get, at least we have this album to get us through it.
In short, LISTEN TO THIS ALBUM! You won’t regret it. For a simple answer to the question of what this album is all about, remember…