Adele Is Back And Better Than Ever With Her New Single "Easy On Me"

After a six-year hiatus from music, the 33-year-old British songstress released “Easy On Me,” the lead single off her upcoming album, 30.

If you’re like me, you’ve already lost track of how many times you’ve watched the video or streamed the song on Spotify. It’s both beautiful and heart-wrenching, the two ingredients to a perfect Adele song that we’ve all been craving for six years.

However, this isn’t your standard breakup song. Adele’s new album will tackle a different kind of heartbreak, and I can’t wait to hear what else she has in store for us when 30 comes out on November 19.

What Adele Says about 30 and “Easy On Me”

Adele is famous for naming her albums after the age she was when she experienced the events that inspired the songs on the album. Her previous albums followed this formula, and 30 starts five years after her last album, 25, ended.

During this time, Adele married businessman Simon Konecki and recently divorced him (she filed in 2019, but the divorce was finalized this year). They share a 9-year-old son named Angelo, whom they co-parent. It appears that most of the songs will be about the divorce and how she dealt with the whirlwind of emotions that came with it. 

This doesn’t mean the divorce was messy. Adele said, “I was just going through the motions and I wasn’t happy. Neither of us did anything wrong. Neither of us hurt each other or anything like that. It was just: I want my son to see me really love and be loved. It’s really important to me. I’ve been on my journey to find my true happiness ever since.”

It appears that Adele’s main struggle with the divorce was how it affected her son. In an interview with British Vogue, she said, "I just felt like 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. It made him really unhappy sometimes. And that's a real wound for me that I don't know if I'll ever be able to heal."

“Easy On Me” is the first track to be released from 30, and it appears to be a letter to her son. She sings, “Go easy on me, baby / I was still a child / Didn't get the chance to / Feel the world around me / I had no time to choose what I chose to do / So go easy on me.”

As the first song she wrote for 30, it makes sense that it’s the lead single. I assume the rest of the album will fit the same theme of “Easy On Me,” making this a new era in Adele’s career. She’s no longer singing about how she doesn’t want her ex to forget her or apologizing for breaking an ex’s heart; she’s singing about how she had to end her marriage to find true happiness, hurting her son in the process. 

Adele is singing about how she had to end her marriage to find true happiness, hurting her son in the process. 

It’s a different type of heartbreak than your standard breakup, but it fits Adele’s history of singing about what she’s experiencing in her heart. She’s proud of how vulnerable the album is, as she told Vogue, “It’s sensitive for me, this record, just in how much I love it. I always say that 21 doesn’t belong to me anymore. Everyone else took it into their hearts so much. I’m not letting go of this one. This is my album. I want to share myself with everyone, but I don’t think I’ll ever let this one go.”

Though it’s the end of Adele’s breakup song era, her new music will still resonate with audiences due to her unique ability to translate her pain into beautiful music.

What Makes Adele So Popular?

Adele is one of my all-time favorite artists, and the social media response to her return to releasing music shows that I’m not alone.  Even though Adele doesn’t write upbeat party songs that get stuck in our heads all day, she’s still one of the most popular artists in contemporary music.

Our culture loves sad songs because they help us cope when we’re experiencing heartbreak, as well as keep us in touch with our emotions when we’re not going through them. Music therapist Sandi Curtis, Ph.D., writes, "Listening to sad songs allows us to process our emotions and our experiences. It allows us to be in the present, be mindful of our emotions, and deal with them, rather than stuffing them down."

“Easy On Me” resonates because it speaks to the relatable pain of disappointing someone you care about.

I’ve listened to Adele’s songs like “Set Fire to the Rain” and “Someone Like You” on repeat through every heartbreak, and they still elicit a powerful emotional response. Though I’m no longer crying over some guy who doesn’t deserve my tears (let’s be real, we’ve all been there) while listening to them, these songs remind me of how strong my emotions can be. Sometimes I listen to them when I’m at my happiest because these songs always seem to strengthen whichever emotion I’m experiencing. Adele may be writing about a different kind of heartbreak, but “Easy On Me” still resonates with me because it speaks to the relatable pain of disappointing someone you care about.

This is why Adele is so popular and why there is so much hype around the upcoming release of 30. She has the ability to take her personal experiences and translate them into music we can all relate to. It’s why you’ll probably see memes about her and her music in your social media feeds for the next few months and why you’ll probably blast 30 on full volume on November 19 alongside millions of people across the world.

Closing Thoughts

Adele is famous for her honest and relatable lyrics, plus her insane vocal talent, which is why she’s so beloved and successful. The new era of Adele’s music will bring us a new type of heartbreak song to adore for years to come, and I can’t wait to hear the rest!

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