It’s been six long years since Adele’s last album ‘25’ – the record that turned the Tottenham singer-songwriter into a Glastonbury headliner, and one of the most successful artists of all time.
After she casually projected the number 30 across global landmarks such as Rome’s Colosseum, the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, and the side of the Brooklyn Bridge – and whipping fans up into a frenzy in the process – it’s finally official. Titled ‘30’ in accordance with past Adele records (each takes its name from the singer’s age when she began making them) her fourth album is now officially slated for release. Here’s everything we know so far…
When is Adele’s new album ‘30’ coming out?
Earlier this week Adele confirmed that ‘30’ will be released on November 19. In a statement posted on social media, the singer told fans that when she began working on the album she was “certainly nowhere near where I hoped to be when I first started it nearly 3 years ago. Quite the opposite actually.”
Throughout the journey of making the album, she added, “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 feelings again. I’d go so far as to say I’ve never felt more peaceful in my life. And so, I’m ready to finally put this album out.”
What’s it gonna sound like?
Contrary to Adele’s early, slightly tongue-in-cheek claims that she was making “a drum n bass record to spite you”, ‘30’ isn’t quite that kind of curveball – but still, expect some experimentation. Giles Hattersley, the journalist who profiled the star for British Vogue this month, compared one unnamed song he heard to “Goldfrapp, her voice sampled and resampled over a hypnotic beat”. The album’s closer, meanwhile, is a seven-minute epic: “A string-swirling, Garland-invoking, jazzy, campy, swooning delight, packed with world-weary end-of-the-show reflection, and featuring a vocal for the ages.”
In an interview with BBC Radio 2’s Zoe Ball this week (October 15), Adele added that there’s also “”another one that’s very 70s, piano singer-songwritery. Just very Carpenters, very Elton [John].”
Has she released any singles?
Just the one, so far – the heartstring-tugging ‘Easy On Me’ came out today (October 15) accompanied by a black and white music video that jokingly nods to Adele’s video for ‘Hello’. “I will probably have bad signal!” she tells somebody over the phone while pacing outdoors, “I said I PROBABLY WON’T HAVE GOOD SIGNAL,” she roars. “Yes, I can hear you perfectly. Can you hear me?”
The track received the full five-star treatment from NME. “Adele’s first new song in six years lives up to expectations because her ability to convey raw emotion through her voice and songwriting remains extraordinary. Even if you don’t know, as Adele revealed in a recent Vogue cover story, that she wrote ‘Easy on Me’ shortly after calling time on her marriage, you’ll feel her pain as she makes a plea for kindness and understanding.”
What inspired the album?
In a recent Instagram live, Adele gave fans some extra tidbits about ‘30’ – as well as incredulously ruling out a collaboration with Peppa Pig she opened up about some of the inspirations behind her latest material. “Divorce babe, divorce,” she quipped. Elsewhere, she aired a snippet of the album’s lead single ‘Easy On Me’ for lucky fans.
The singer divorced her ex-husband Simon Konecki earlier this year after separating in 2019, and has said that ‘30’ attempts to explain many of her feelings around their break-up. “My son has had a lot of questions. Really good questions, really innocent questions, that I just don’t have an answer for, [like] “‘Why can’t you still live together?’” she told British Vogue. “I just felt like I wanted to explain to him, through this record, when he’s in his 20s or 30s, who I am and why I voluntarily chose to dismantle his entire life in the pursuit of my own happiness. It made him really unhappy sometimes. And that’s a real wound for me that I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to heal.”
Who did she collaborate with on ‘30’?
In keeping with the rest of her albums, ‘30’ doesn’t feature any guest stars. “It’s not that I don’t want to,” she told British Vogue.“It’s not calculated. It’s just never been right for some reason.”
On the production side, however, you’ll spot a few familiar faces. Once again, she’s linked up with producer Greg Kurstin, who co-wrote three tracks on her previous album ‘25’, including its epic lead single ‘Hello’. Swedish producers Max Martin and Shellback, who co-produced and co-wrote her track ‘Send My Love (To Your New Lover)’, are also credited on the record along with singer-songwriter Tobias Jesso Jr. (who previously worked with Adele on ‘25’ tracks ‘When We Were Young’ and ‘Lay Me Down’).
For the first time, Adele has also worked with the British producer Inflo, who has produced for both Little Simz, Michael Kiwanuka and is a member of the mysterious, Mercury-nominated SAULT collective.
“The reason that we gelled together so well with this record is, first of all, he asked me questions that no-one would ever bloody dare…” Adele said, recounting her experiences working with Inflo to BBC Radio 2’s Zoe Ball. “But it would start with five, six hour therapy sessions and he would get a feeling out of me that I had no idea was even in me; and then I’d leave at the end of the day with a song about that feeling. He would push me and say, ‘I don’t believe you,’ or, ‘you can do better than that.’ And just constantly sending me amazing music I’d never heard of, that wasn’t even out yet, or out-takes of things.”
After Adele told British Vogue that rappers Tyler, The Creator and Skepta prompted her use of voice-notes on the album, fans speculated that they might well feature on it – but sadly, she was just inspired by their own use of audio snippets. ““I thought it might be a nice touch, seeing as everyone’s been at my door for the last 10 years, as a fan, to be like, Would you like to come in?” she said.
Is Adele touring ‘30’?
If you’re hoping to bag tickets to an Adele tour, set some news alerts – the singer is still in the process of figuring out how to pull off a world tour amid the ongoing pandemic. “I don’t have any solid plans because of COVID,” Adele told Zoe Ball on her BBC Radio 2 show this morning (October 15). “It’s so hard to plan a global tour or a global thing, really, in person, and stuff like that.”
More hopefully, she added: “We have a few options in the pipeline… We’re just trying to, sort of, work out what is most doable. But I’ll be doing something or other. Maybe I’ll be busking in the tube, we don’t know do we?!”
Fans will hopefully be able to catch Adele performing live on telly, though – according to Vulture: “Adele’s camp has approached multiple networks and platforms about the idea of staging a TV special tied to the new release. No deals are in place, and talks are still in the exploratory stage,” the report reads. “But if it happens, sources say the televised event would likely debut before the end of the year — just in time for the holiday shopping season.” Watch this space.