She’s back and better than ever. 

By Anna Ginelli

After a five-year hiatus from the music industry, Adele released the single “Easy On Me” on October 15th ahead of the release of her fifth studio album, 30. 

Riddled with the stress of her divorce with ex-husband Simon Konecki while raising their son, Angelo, Adele turned to her songbook to document “the most turbulent period” of her life. 

“Easy On Me” begins with the songstress crooning about how “There ain’t no gold in this river / That I’ve been washin’ my hands in forever”. Despite many efforts to save her marriage, Adele ultimately realizes that there is no value in the relationship anymore.

The chorus ties in the song’s title. Adele demonstrates her ability to effortlessly belt out runs as she sings, “Go easy on me, baby / I was still a child / Didn’t get the chance to / Feel the world around me”. 

The main interpretation of the chorus is that Adele is singing to her son, Angelo. She is asking him to “go easy on her” as she navigates through a particularly difficult time in her life.

Through the lyrics that she was “just a child” and “didn’t get the chance to feel the world around her”, she conveys to Angelo and her audience that she was thrown into fame at such a young age that she didn’t have the time or mindset to make wise decisions. In short, she is asking her son to forgive her.

In an interview with British Vogue, Adele describes how 30 serves as an explanation for the divorce to her son as she says, “if I can reach the reason why I left, which was the pursuit of my own happiness, even though it made Angelo really unhappy—if I can find that happiness and he sees me in that happiness, then maybe I’ll be able to forgive myself for it.”

Adele continues to speak to her son in the bridge with, “I had good intentions / And the highest hopes / But I know right now / It probably doesn’t even show”. Here, Adele explains that she thought she was doing the right thing by marrying Angelo’s father, even though it doesn’t seem like it as they go through a divorce. 

The music video—which was also released on October 15th—seamlessly portrays the motifs of moving on and change from the song, as the beginning of the video shows Adele packing up and leaving an empty house, the colors of the screen restrained to black and white. 

The gloomy, melancholy feeling built up by the beginning of the video is smashed at the end of the video as Adele’s black-and-white world is injected with warm, vibrant colors. She has come to terms with what is very best for herself and her son, despite the obstacles she will inevitably face. 

Within hours of its release, “Easy On Me” topped the U.S. iTunes chart and at the time of this writing is the most played song on Apple Music in the U.S. Not to mention, the single broke the record for most single-day streams on Spotify with 19,749,704 global streams (the previous record of 17,223,237 was held by Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You”). 

With such a strong start, what should fans expect for the rest of Adele’s 30? "I feel like this album is self-destruction, then self-reflection, and then sort of self-redemption," she tells Vogue. "But I feel ready. I really want people to hear my side of the story this time."

Be prepared to stream 30 on November 19th!