LONDON – After a six-year hiatus, English singer Adele released her highly anticipated album 30.
Fans, who were missing her presence and awaiting her return, were rewarded with heart-breaking ballads that touch on divorce and loss but ultimately growth.
These are topics that adults may know well but here is my take on what 30 means to a 15-year-old.
Adele begins 30 by referencing the ‘cemetery’ of her heart, invoking a sense of loss that she has faced in love.
Before 30, Adele touched on her divorce from her partner and the implications this had on her relationship with her son.
The track “My Little Love” is gut-wrenching when you realize Adele is speaking about being honest with her child as a mother, not just about divorce but also about her emotions.
With 30, Adele puts a bit of her soul into every melody of each song so that as a listener you just can’t help but to feel precisely what she is feeling. The fourth track, “Cry Your Heart Out” is the exact atmosphere of the album.
Tragedy is laced in every line, but Adele always manages to flip the message of each song. making the album almost a love letter to herself – one of forgiveness for all the hurt she has endured, even the self-inflicted hurt.
The line, “I am so tired of battling myself,” from “Hold On” sticks out because you feel Adele’s internal conflict, the battle to love someone else while still learning to love yourself. Every ad-lib and vocal is magical, adding extra depth to every song.
Another prevalent theme is accountability best shown in “To Be Loved.”
Adele sings, “It’s about time that I faced myself, all I do is bleed on someone else.”
As a listener, Adele teaches us to face our own faults.
Adele makes us realize that being 30 isn’t just about growing older but in fact about learning.
“The road less travelled is a road best left behind” from “I Drink Wine” is a pertinent message, allowing us to realize we can learn from our mistakes.
Adele brings the power for us to acknowledge the emotions we suppress in our subconscious and face them head on. A lesson in an album for both adults and the youth to turn their tragedies into triumphs and to prevail even in the midst of pain. By the end of listening to 30, you feel a sense of catharsis.
Adele ends with the track “Love Is A Game,” singing, “I love me now,” which juxtaposes “Woman Like Me.”
Adele no longer needs to fight to be loved by someone else now that she loves herself. In the end she says, “I’d do it all again” because love may be a game, but in the end, the most powerful love of all always wins – self-love.
30 is a masterpiece that now takes place in the brilliance of Adele’s discography.
Anjola Fashawe is a Junior Reporter with Youth Journalism International.
