"30" - Adele

As for many others, November has been all about the release of Adele’s highly-anticipated album “30.”

Dropping new music after not releasing for 6 years can be a dangerous thing (Looking at you, Rihanna). High expectations, people setting their hopes up and romanticizing the music, they haven’t heard in 6 years, and therefore feel deeply nostalgic and protective about. So many things could go wrong. But with Adele, it somehow never seems to turn out that bad.

“30” is filled with what Adele does best; storytelling. If her vocals aren’t doing it for you, listening to her aesthetically pleasing way of writing should. You can say a lot of things about Adele, but that woman knows how to captivate her audience, in one way or another. On this album, she gives us more than the usual trio of guitar, strings and piano. (Not a lot, but some) With the song “Oh My God” she moves out of her comfort zone and shows her capability to navigate in the mainstream music industry today, just as we have seen Ed Sheeran do. Still not letting go of what is HER though, because we literally got 11 ballads on there, but showing she got more than one trick up her sleeve. A thing that is important in the fast-moving music industry today. However, Adele has been distancing herself from making, what the young folks like to call “TikTok-music”, and has shown no interest in trying to fit into what a successful popstar looks like in 2021. Her approach to the industry is superior, because let’s be honest … it needs her more than she needs it.

With this album, she has clearly taken a step further into the old Hollywood sound universe with big ballads and big emotions. A sound that fits her perfectly. I must say, I’m a fan of this album, her vocals on it, the stories she is telling, and I think it is destined to do great great things for her.