Music industry ecstatic: Adele makes highly personal comeback with first new track in over six years
Adele bares her soul in comeback single Easy On Me this weekend, her first new track in more than six years.
The pop superstar, 33, described the period following her most recent album in 2015 as the most turbulent in her life.
It saw her split from charity boss husband Simon Konecki in 2019 and spark a new romance with US sports agent Rich Paul.
Adele said 30, the album she will release in November, was her attempt at explaining her divorce to eight-year-old son Angelo.
Easy On Me sees the singer apparently directly addressing her ex-husband and son while explaining why she left her marriage.
The stirring video, shot in black-and-white and filmed in Canada last month, features Adele taking a last look around an empty house before picking up her suitcase, putting on sunglasses and leaving.
She climbs into her car and drives off, passing a “sold” sign outside what was her family home.
“Go easy on me, baby,” Adele sings over a piano as she drives past a newly married couple.
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.
Later, seemingly speaking to Konecki and Angelo, Adele sings: “You can’t deny how hard I tried, I changed who I was to put you both first but now I give up.”
She adds: “I had good intentions, and I had these hopes, but I know it now, it probably doesn’t even show.”
The video, shot in Quebec with director Xavier Dolan, ends on a light-hearted note, with a behind-the-scenes clip showing Adele being blown by a wind machine.
It was filmed at the same house as the music video for Adele’s 2015 smash hit Hello.
Adele’s 30 is one of the most eagerly awaited releases in recent years.
Her previous albums – 19, 21 and 25 – have all been global hits. 21 and 25 both won album of the year at the Grammys.
State of mind
Against the sky-high expectations which will greet 30’s release, Adele shared some background into her state of mind while producing the album.
In a post on Twitter, she said the record served as “my friend who came over with a bottle of wine and a takeaway to cheer me up”.
Adele said: “My wise friend who always gives the best advice. Not to forget the one who’s wild and says ‘It’s your Saturn return babes f*** it, you only live once’.
“The friend who’d stay up all night and just hold my hand while I’d sob relentlessly not knowing why.”
She added: “And then that friend who no matter what, checked in on me even though I’d stopped checking in with them because I’d become so consumed by my own grief.
“I’ve painstakingly rebuilt my house and my heart since then and this album narrates it.”