Adele returns with all the breakup feels: ‘Easy on Me’
Adele is finally back, and it’s as though she never left.
The British belter with the roofraising voice released her new single, “Easy on Me,” on Thursday, setting off a monthlong countdown to the arrival of her long-awaited fourth studio album, “30.”
A stately and dramatic piano ballad in the classic Adele style, “Easy on Me” finds the 33-year-old singer contemplating her experience in a fraught relationship: “There ain’t no room for a thing to change/ When we are both so deeply stuck in our ways,” she sings, her voice soaring yet slightly crinkly around the edges, “You can’t deny how hard I’ve tried/ I changed who I was to put you both first/ But now I give up.”
One presumes — sniffle — she’s singing about her recent divorce from Simon Konecki, with whom she shares a young son.
Produced and co-written by Greg Kurstin — who worked with Adele on her smash 2015 single “Hello,” which topped the Billboard Hot 100 for 10 consecutive weeks — “Easy on Me” is the first offering from “30,” set for release on Nov. 19.
In the song’s music video, which also came out Thursday, Adele portrays a woman driving away from a home with her belongings packed into a trailer.
The singer’s new album will follow her 2015 blockbuster, “25,” which has been certified 11-times-platinum in the U.S. alone and won five Grammy Awards, including album of the year. (Each of Adele’s LPs has been titled after the age at which she wrote it.)
Inspired by what she called “the most turbulent period” of her life in an Instagram post, “30” will reportedly feature collaborations with writers and producers including Max Martin and Tobias Jesso Jr., both of whom she’s worked with before, as well as newcomers Inflo, known for his partnership with Danger Mouse, and Ludwig Goransson, known for his work with Childish Gambino and his scoring work on films such as “Black Panther.”