I may not know anything about marriage or love, but I know Adele can teach me if she
puts her mind to it. If you know me, you know that “When We Were Young” is (much to the
chagrin of my companions) my favorite karaoke song. Thus, when I heard that Adele was back
in the music scene with the single “Easy On Me,” I dropped everything I was doing in order to
listen. And listen, I did. I listened to it for an hour, and I still need more.
With the anticipation of Taylor Swift’s re-release of Red, many are preparing for “sad girl fall,”
the gloomy older sister of “hot girl summer.” Adele has thrust us into the midst of it, and I’m not
complaining. “Easy On Me” is a stripped-back ballad- Adele’s haunting vocals and a beautiful
piano accompaniment take the listener through the complexities of her relationship to love,
family, and loss of innocence. She begs the listener, presumably her son, Angelo, to go easy on
her regarding the splitting of his parents.
Again, I’ve never been married, I’ve never been in love in the traditional sense, but when
I hear her belt those three words I feel it ring through my body. I get a lump in my throat
thinking about it. There is something about the vulnerability behind her consistent plea in “Easy
On Me” that I relate to. The naivety that is interwoven into coming of age is something I still
can’t come to terms with, and hearing Adele, a woman 12 years my senior, still struggle with it is
comforting in a bittersweet way. Yes, Adele and I are exactly the same, that’s the conclusion
I’m drawing here.