Adele performing live in Tennessee. Photo Credit: Kristopher Harris
After years of speculation – and a COVID-prompted delay – Adele has officially announced 30, which will mark her first release since 2015’s 25.
The 33-year-old singer-songwriter just recently took to social media to unveil her upcoming fourth studio album, informing fans of the news – and the creative process behind the project – via a lengthy message. At the time of this piece’s publishing, the post had garnered approximately 62,000 retweets and 250,000 likes on Twitter, and 30 is slated to arrive on Friday, November 19th.
“I was certainly nowhere near where I’d hoped to be when I first started it nearly 3 years ago,” Adele’s message begins. “Quite the opposite actually. I rely on routine and consistency to feel safe, I always have. And yet there I was knowingly – willingly even, throwing myself into a maze of absolute mess and inner turmoil!
“I’ve learned a lot of blistering home truths about myself along the way. I’ve shed many layers but also wrapped myself in new ones. Discovered genuinely useful and wholesome mentalities to lead with, and I feel like I’ve finally found my feeling again. I’d go as far as to say that I’ve never felt more peaceful in my life,” continues London-born Adele’s comments regarding 30, which, unlike 25, won’t release via Beggars Group’s XL in the UK.
“And so, I’m ready to finally put this album out,” the post proceeds. “It was my ride or die throughout the most turbulent period of my life. When I was writing it, it was my friend who came over with a bottle of wine and a takeaway to cheer me up. 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-ck 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. The get up and go friend who would pick me up and take me somewhere I said I didn’t want to go but just wanted to get me out the house for some vitamin D,” the post states towards its end. “That friend who snuck in and left a magazine with a face mask and some bath salts to make me feel loved while inadvertently reminding me not only what month it actually was but that I should probably exercise some self-care!
“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. Home is where the heart is x,” the message finishes.
It doesn’t appear that the 15-time Grammy winner (and 18-time nominee) Adele has unveiled 30’s tracklist, but the effort’s first single, “Easy on Me,” is set to become available to fans this Friday, October 15th. More broadly, it’ll be worth monitoring the album’s performance given that over half a decade has passed since the “Someone Like You” vocalist, songwriter, and producer released a single or an album, once again.
A number of music-industry figures – including Spotify CEO Daniel Ek – have touted the idea that frequent releases are a key ingredient in the recipe for commercial success today. To be sure, Ek controversially relayed last year: “There is a narrative fallacy here, combined with the fact that, obviously, some artists that used to do well in the past may not do well in this future landscape, where you can’t record music once every three to four years and think that’s going to be enough.”
But if the above-highlighted social-media interest in Adele’s message announcing 30 is any indication, the album could prove popular with fans – potentially demonstrating that there are no hard and fast rules in the contemporary music industry.
