ALBUM REVIEW: 30 – Adele

After a five year hiatus, global superstar Adele is back with her new album – 30 – out everywhere now that has already garnered critical acclaim and success. Listen to the album here now and read our review of 30 by Adele below.

When you’re a name as widely known as Adele, the hype around a record can sometimes be greater than the album itself. 30 – the first album by Adele after a nearly six year hiatus, was one of the, if not the most hotly anticipated album of the year. After the release of the lead single ‘Easy on Me’ hit the number one spot for over a month, the noise around the album was amplified rather than diminished, followed by the release of an American and UK TV specials. The reviews for the record amped this up yet more, yet one listen to the record proves that no review can put into words the emotion depth of 30, a flawless album that shows Adele’s ability to innovate, yet continue to showcase the exceptional vocal that no words can pay justice to. As has been widely publicised, 30 documents the dark hours after Adele’s divorce from her husband and the father to her son – Angelo. It’s more than that though, it’s a letter to herself and to her son, explaining her choices and it’s simply transcendent. Opening with the extraordinary line on ‘Strangers by Nature,’ ‘I’ll be taking flowers to the cemetery of my heart / For all of my lovers, in the present and in the dark.’ As an opener, the track lyrically and sonically invites in a new era for Adele – the only track produced by Ludwig Göransson – is a stunningly, nostalgic track reminiscent of old school Hollywood. It’s a melancholic headspace she establishes from the start, but a slower moment allowing her to sit her stride, before she says, ‘Alright, I’m ready.’ Ready to pour her heart out. 

‘Easy On Me’ narrates the moment of her divorce as she explains to her son and herself, ‘There ain’t no room for things to change / When we are both so deeply stuck in our ways.’ It’s already a mammoth hit and was the natural choice to lead out the album release, an easy stand-out from the record. There follows a string of heart-wrenching tracks narrating the dark times of her divorce, produced by long-time collaborator, Greg Kurstin. ‘A Little Love’ is almost painfully intimate and real, broken up with conversations both with her son, Angelo and with a friend. ‘I feel like today is the first day since I left that I feel lonely / And I never feel lonely, I love being on my own.’ ‘Cry Your Heart Out’ offers the first groovier moment of the record, in which Adele offers a lighter touch to her track that takes her darkest moments as its theme, before leading into ‘Oh My God.’ The track is the second single from the record, narrating the first moments she began to feel ‘ok’ after her divorce, a potent mix of anxiety and hope in a new relationship. ‘Oh my god, I can’t remember / Who I was just last December / What have I done, how did I get here?’ There’s a funky baseline to the track that elevates it to something interesting, a new edge for Adele. 

‘Can I Get It,’ produced by Max Martin, is one of the bigger bops on the record, another easy stand-out in which Adele sings out the toxins of the earlier half of the record, a slick, grooving melody with a poised and polished production, leading into an early fan favourite ‘I Drink Wine’ – a classic, tear-jerking ballad. It’s a track that showcases the raw power of Adele’s vocals that has not diminished over the years, a rich tenor that pours so much emotion into the song about trying to claw out of the depths of her hardest moments. 

On the latter third of the record, a new influence is brought into the equation, with fellow Londoner Info producing most of this final part of 30 – ‘Woman Like Me,’ ‘Hold On’ and ‘Love Is a Game.’ These moments are some of her most powerful when she lingers in the insecurity of a new relationship and lays her heart and soul bare. It’s a poised moment that in its quieter moments showcases the rich qualities of her vocal in new and unexpected ways, whilst ‘Hold On’ offers a graceful convergence of pop and real soul, with a blues edge and on ‘Love Is a Game’ – another surefire hit – Adele trades off stunning vocals. 

‘To Be Loved’ is the jewel in the crown of 30 – an almost painfully raw and vulnerable moment – that shows Adele as an artist who can not be underestimated. ‘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.’ Her vocal and lyrical depth are simply staggering in the real decision to end her marriage. There has been much ink spilled already in that Adele will not perform the song live, due to its pain, and she pours that real emotion into the studio recording that threatens to buckle under that emotional weight.

30 is a masterfully produced and delivered record, full of the powerhouse ballads we have come to expect from Adele, yet adding a rich, interesting note to the record, through the infusion of greater influences that pivot Adele into the next era of her music. Adele has poured the heartbreak of the past few years, from her divorce to the early days of a new relationship into a phenomenal album, just when we thought she couldn’t be beaten by her last offering.