Adele is back, with the release of a new single from her first album in six years, 30, a sparse and visceral piano ballad named ‘Easy on Me’.
The song sees Adele explaining to her young son the decision she made to end her marriage to longtime partner Simon Konecki.
The music video, released along with the song at midnight last night, is directed by Xavier Dolan, a Canadian director known for his 2015 film Mommy, the critically eviscerated The Death & Life of John F. Donovan, and the 2015 Adele music video Hello.
In many ways, these videos are similar – they start in a muted, monochromatic palette with the sepia tinge we all now recognise from an Adele music video. But at the minute mark, accompanying the lyric of ‘I changed who I was to put you both first / but now I give up’, the video explodes into colour.
While ‘Easy On Me’ has been described as very much a traditional Adele ballad, there have apparently been hints from those who have heard a handful of tracks that the rest of the album will showcase a much more experimental side to Adele’s music, one she has been able to develop over her long hiatus. According to Vogue, one track features her vocals ‘sampled and resampled over a hypnotic beat’ – reminiscent of electro-pop act Goldfrapp.
There have also been reports that she has been working with London-based producer Inflo – responsible for the sounds of Michael Kiwanuka and Little Simz – as well as the Oscar-winning composer of the Black Panther score, Ludwig Göransson, who is also known for his almost career-long collaboration with Childish Gambino.
The song was apparently the first one written for the upcoming album, which will arrive in five weeks time on 19 November, a date we know thanks to Adele stans who noticed Taylor Swift bring forward her album release date by a week so as to not clash with the highest-selling British artist of the 21st century.
Adele will have some competition in the coming weeks though, with major releases from Ed Sheeran, Swift, Coldplay, and the major return of ABBA. Yet Martin Talbot, chief executive of the Official Charts Company, told the BBC that ‘It would be a brave man who predicted anything other than 30 being the biggest album of this Christmas.’ It won’t be long now until we find out.
