Go easy on Us! Adele‘s highly anticipated fourth record, 30, is finally here — and already has fans reaching for their tissues.
The 33-year-old singer’s album dropped on Friday, November 19, nearly six years after 25‘s debut. Leading up to the new music’s release, Adele admitted that working on the record was a saving grace amid her divorce from Simon Konecki.
“It was like it really helped me, this album,” the Grammy winner told Zane Lowe during an interview on Apple Music’s “Beats 1” on Wednesday, November 17. “It really, really did. And I truly do believe, like, when we started the interview where I was like, ‘There’s not an occasion or a scenario or a feeling where there is not the perfect song for it somewhere.’ I really do believe, and I’m not being arrogant or anything like that here, it’s just, like, it was my hell. But I really went to hell and back.”
The “Set Fire to the Rain” artist split from Konecki, 47, in 2019 after going public with their romance seven years prior. They share son Angelo, 9, who was also a big inspiration for the Oscar winner when working on 30.
“I can’t tell his story actually for him. But I can speak about where he was finding himself in it. And it was really, really beautiful,” she told “Beats 1” of new song “My Little Love,” which she dedicated to her son. “While I was writing it, I just remember thinking of any child that’s been through divorce or any person that has been through a divorce themselves or anyone that wants to leave a relationship and never will. I thought about all of them, because my divorce really humanized my parents for me. And that song, writing it, made me just … kind of get over things that my own parents did or didn’t do for me.”
Ahead of the album’s release, Adele performed a handful of its tracks during her CBS special, Adele One Night Only, on Sunday, November 14. In a sit-down interview the same night, the British musician explained that she wasn’t “frightened” for fans to finally hear her deepest thoughts.
“There were moments when I was writing the record, or I would listen back to something and be like, ‘That might be a bit too private,'” she said. “But nothing is as scary as what I’ve been through over the last two [or] three years behind closed doors.”
When she announced her latest record in October, the “Hello” songstress reflected on the lessons she’d learned amid all of her personal ups and downs.
“I’ve learned a lot of blistering home truths about myself along the way,” Adele wrote. “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.”
Scroll down for a complete breakdown of the most heartfelt lyrics on 30:
Adele opens the album by referencing the end of a relationship: "I'll be taking flowers to the cemetery of my heart / For all of my lovers in the present and in the dark / Every anniversary I'll pay respects and say I'm sorry / For they never stood chances if they could." In the outro, she says in a voice note, "Alright then, I'm ready." Allen J Schaben/Los Angeles Times/Shutterstock
"There ain't no room for things to change / When we are both so deeply stuck in our ways / You can't deny how hard I have tried / I changed who I was to put you both first / But now I give up," Adele sings in the second verse. When the "Hometown Glory" singer announced the record via Instagram in October, she described her divorce as being "the most turbulent period" of her life. Cliff Lipson/CBS
The third track on the album is dedicated to her son, Angelo, and features recordings of a conversation they had during which Adele attempts to explain her "big feelings" and separation from Konecki. "I love your dad 'cause he gave you to me," the "Skyfall" songstress tells her child, who says he feels like his mom doesn't love him. "You're half me and you're half daddy." At another point in the song, she belts, "My little love / Tell me, do you feel the way my past aches? / When you lay on me, can you hear the way my heart breaks? / I wanted you to have everything I never had / I'm so sorry if what I've done makes you feel sad." Harpo Productions/Photographer: Joe Pugliese
Adele encourages listeners (and herself) to "go at your own pace" while working through difficult times. "When I wake up, I'm afraid of the idea of facin' the day / I would rather stay home on my own, drink it all away," she sings. "Please stop callin' me, it's exhausting, there's really nothin' left to say / I created this storm, it's only fair I have to sit in its rain." Simon Emmett
"Wish that I would let you break my walls / But I'm still spinning out of control from the fall / Boy, you give good love, I won't lie / It's what keeps me comin' back even though I'm terrified," Adele sings in the first verse of this more up-tempo track. The song seems to detail the aftermath of the divorce and the beginning of Adele's single life. "Maybe, baby, I'm just losing my mind / 'Cause this is trouble, but it feels right / Teetering on the edge of Heaven and Hell / Is a battle that I cannot fight," she sings in the chorus. Mark J Terrill/AP/Shutterstock
Adele reflects on wanting to be "the melody, the rhythm, and your rhyme," expressing a desire to find true love. "When will you run with me? / Like I know you wanna (Like you want to, like you want) / You're the one for me / And I'm countin' on you (On you) / To put the pieces of me back together," she belts in the bridge. Cliff Lipson/CBS
The opening verse asks, "How can one become so bounded by choices that somebody else makes? / How come we've both become a version of a person we don't even like?" Elsewhere, she searches for something to "cling on to" in "crazy times." (During her CBS special on Sunday, Adele teased that she "probably kept the alcohol industry alive, but once I realized I had a lot of work to do on myself, I stopped drinking.") In the chorus, Adele sings, "So I hope I learn to get over myself / Stop tryin' to be somebody else / So we can love each other for free." Richard Young/Shutterstock
Ahead of the record's debut, Adele told Rolling Stone that she had a long-distance fling before falling for current beau Rich Paul. "[It] was a great learning curve and nice to feel loved, but it was never going to work," the "Water Under the Bridge" singer explained. This song details the beginning of a relationship that leaves her wanting to "get on the next flight home" every time the person calls. "Maybe it's the way you remind me of (Where I come from) / Or how you make me feel beautiful (And thеn some) / The sight of you is dramatic, one glimpsе and I panic inside / I get lost in our hours 'cause you possess powers I can't fight / That's why I dream about you," she sings. Shutterstock
Adele searches for "a reason to stay" in this empowering track, asking a love interest, "How can you not see just how good for you I am?" In the chorus, she explains, "Complacency is the worst trait to have, are you crazy? / You ain't never had, ain't never had a woman like me / It is so sad a man likе you could be so lazy / Consistency is the gift to givе for free and it is key / To ever keep, to ever keep a woman like me." Cliff Lipson/CBS
This heartbreaking single was performed during the Adele One Night Only concert — and instantly left fans wanting more. "I don't want to live in chaos / It's like a ride that I want to get off / It's hard to hold on to who I am / When I'm stumblin' in the dark for a hand / I am so tired of battling with myself, with no chance to win," she sings in the first verse. Throughout the ballad, she repeats, "Just let time be patient / 'Cause you're still strong, you're still strong (You are still strong) / Just be gracious / Love will soon come / If you just hold on." Jim Smeal/Shutterstock
"I built a house for a love to grow / I was so young that it was hard to know / I'm as lost now as I was back then," she sings in the intro, realizing, "It's about time that I face myself." Later on, the "Rumor Has It" singer admits, "Looking back, I don't regret a thing / Yeah, I took some bad turns that I am owning / I'll stand still and let the storm pass by / Keep my heart safe 'til the time feels right." As she reflects on how the end of her marriage led her to learn more about herself — and to fall in love again — she sings, "To be loved and love at the highest count / Means to lose all the things I can't live without / Let it be known that I will choose to lose / It's a sacrifice, but I can't live a lie / Let it be known, let it be known that I tried." Beretta/Sims/Shutterstock
During her Adele One Night Only interview, the songwriter explained that she doesn't view love as a game anymore after going through her year of highs and lows. "I can love, I can love again / I love me now, like I loved him / I'm a fool for that / You know I, you know I'm gonna do it / Oh oh oh oh, I'd do it all again like I did then," she sings, allowing herself to move forward from her past. Jim Smeal/Shutterstock
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