Adele’s first 3 albums 19, 21 and 25 pushed her forward to critical acclaim, her amazing vocals capturing the world’s attention. Adele has allowed us into her life as she moves in and out of love and captured our hearts with each love song she produces. Unfortunately, she seems doomed to write love songs eternally.
When Adele first stated her 30 album was going to be about divorce, I had high hopes. With the birth of her son and her movement towards self acceptance after the divorce I expected love songs to herself, her ex husband, and her child, but most of all I expected an embracing of her independence.hile the mourning quality of her music in “Strangers by Nature” and “Easy on Me” is exquisite, I find her songs falter when expressing self love.
The happier moving on songs in her album, “Can I Get It” and “Oh My God,” were focused solely on moving onto the next man. The one exception being “Cry Your Heart Out” which seems to take on the more cliche idea of crying to move on without providing any depth. While “Cry Your Heart Out” was upbeat and a fantastic post-break up dance party song, it lacked the depth that I wanted Adele to embrace moving forward towards loving herself.
There were some heart touching moments in this album, particularly her love song to her son, “My Little Love.” This song had melodic tones that felt almost like hearing a lullabye and the love and guilt she feels towards her son moving through her divorce comes to the forefront of her divorce narrative. The moments where her son’s voice breaks through and hearing the interactions between Adele and her son are so touching and honest. I wanted more of these moments in 30 where I could feel Adele’s pain but also imagine her moving forward. Ultimately, Adele’s album 30 receives a 3 out of 5 from me. While it has some lovely moments of touching honesty, it lacks the depth of emotion I have come to expect from Adele’s music and falls short of my expectation as a divorce album.