Music Review: Adele, Easy On Me

With the announcement of her new album dropping on November 19, many fans are hyped up for this drop. Adele’s new hit single ‘Easy On Me’ comes out right after her recent divorce. For one thing, it underlines that she has fresh heartbreak to write about, which had been an issue with her last album, 25, on which she was forced to take over the same relationship that had inspired its predecessor for material. For another, her fans might have cause to be alarmed by what the cover of Vogue refers to as “a new look, a new love, a new sound”. The new single is so Adele-esque it’s quite hard to make a qualitative judgment about: you hear it and think “yes, that’s definitely Adele, doing the stuff that Adele does”. For better or worse, it stays loyal to a classic formula, down to the black-and-white music video directed by the same person behind “Hello.” Even if you’ve never seen an Adele video before, you could probably anticipate its plaintive imagery: Adele in a dilapidated home, pensively looking out the window; Adele driving away in her car, glancing at the rearview mirror; Adele putting on a cassette, letting the stereo crackle. There may be new heartbreak to reckon with, but Adele still delivers the same satisfactions.