Adele’s 30: A Devastatingly Enchanting Diary Of Mournful Heartbreak

By Sergio Niblett-Morales Originally Published in Issue 17.6 on 3 December 2021

Image Courtesy of Columbia Records

Six years after her previous studio album 25, Adele’s return feels like a consoling hug punctuated with both glee and heartache. Following the separation from her husband in 2018, 30 is laced with themes of mournful heartbreak, for which Adele is best known. Songs like Send My Love (To Your New Lover) and Someone Like You are sonically very present in 30, yet Adele teeters on the boundaries of genres numerous times in her new album. The result is a devastatingly enchanting diary of her divorce, to which she comically responded to a fan on her inaugural Instagram Live saying the album is about ‘divorce babe, divorce.’ 30 is both the embrace of Adele’s luminary status as an iconic soul singer and a step into a bold, new direction.

Album Analysis

Opening the album, Strangers By Nature, a dream-like song with lush string arrangements, sets this mournful tone immediately with the line: ‘I’ll be taking flowers to the cemetery of my heart’. This track is sonically rich, with a sombre piano transitioning into an orchestral flourish of strings as the song progresses. It is the best song on the album, encapsulating the raw emotion that every other track on the album also exhibits.

Easy On Me, a mid-tempo piano backed track, is classic Adele harking back to some of her previous songs. The track details the breakdown of her marriage and a reflection on her past. Melodically, Easy On Me is one of the stronger songs on the album, particularly as the verses transition into the chorus.

The album then moves onto the brooding My Little Love which is interspersed with recordings of Adele speaking to her child and contemplating loneliness. These recordings further the heavy emotional gravitas of the song, with the strings following this pattern. My Little Love consists of pensive lyrics such as ‘I’m holdin’ on (Barely)/ Mama’s got a lot to learn (It’s heavy)’ in the chorus, which is then matched by the production.

Cry Your Heart Out moves Adele in a different sonic direction, adopting a reggae tone. Lyrically, the song contrasts with its relatively upbeat production, with Adele ruminating over how to deal with her emotions. This is revealed almost methodically in the chorus, ‘Cry your heart out, it’ll clean your face/ When you’re in doubt, go at your own pace’.

Working with producer Max Martin, who also worked on Send My Love (To Your New Lover), Adele sonically returns to Pop on the track Can I Get It. Although the whistling on the chorus is catchy and memorable, the song as a whole is lyrically distant from the album's other tracks as it discusses casual sex. The lively strum of a guitar in the majority of the song is definitely enjoyable but contrasts to the personal dimension that the other tracks exude.

I Drink Wine was described by Adele in an interview with Rolling Stone as a song about the contemplation of one’s ego backed by a mid-tempo piano and drums. Sonically, the track does not branch out into any new realms, but it is lyrically strong, particularly in the bridge ‘We both will find (We both find), peace of mind/ Sometimes, the road less travelled is a road best left behind’.

On the other hand, All Night Parking (with Errol Garner) Interlude does take Adele into a new sonic direction, following a semi-trap lo-fi beat. It is a refreshing change of pace that sounds organic with Adele’s lower register vocals.

Returning to a mournful piano ballad, To Be Loved is another lyrically strong track in which Adele states how she will no longer change herself in order to be loved by anybody anymore. In particular, the first verse is a lyrical highlight: ‘All I do is bleed into someone else/ Painting walls with all my secret tears’. The vocals on the final chorus into the outro are as powerful and raw as they are throughout the album.

The final track on the album, Love Is A Game, returns to the dream-like strings in Strangers By Nature. In a lyrically self-reflective track, Adele states on the chorus ‘Love is a game for fools to play/ And I ain’t fooling again’. Shimmering with a classic sounding flare in its production, Love Is A Game rounds out the album beautifully.

Verdict

All in all, 30 is a very strong return to form that delivers lyrically, vocally and sonically. Alongside functioning as a consoling hug, it is almost like reading Adele’s own diary - something so personal, yet so beautiful, that it takes her into a new direction in both her personal life and her music.