A lover once again out of luck

Illustration by Udeshi Seneviratne

Adele’s ‘30’ Review
By Jerrison Oracion, Senior Columnist
4/5

The tone of the album has a whimsical sound while paying tribute to Judy Garland including the first song “Strangers By Nature.”

After the release of Adele’s previous Grammy-winning album 25 in 2015, many people were wondering if she was going to make another album. I was worried that if she released another album, it would not be as great as her earlier albums, and she would become a gimmick. To be fair, I think she’s probably the greatest singer of all time and still sounds the same on 30—the highest-selling album of this year so far.

In the past six years, Adele went through a lot and probably suffered from success like DJ Khaled. She had a short three-year marriage, got involved in a cultural appropriation controversy, and as a surprise to many fans, she lost a lot of weight—hopefully for positive reasons. Also, she changed record labels from independent XL Recordings to Columbia Records which may be the reason why the vibe of this album is not the same as her earlier albums. But, it still has the subject matters that she talks about frequently in her music.

As I said in my review of her first album, 19, she is a diva now and as powerful as Taylor Swift. The album must be heard in its entirety and in order; this led to Spotify removing the shuffle button for all album pages at Adele’s request. I get what she wanted when I listened to the album. Also, it was unusual for me to listen to it on a wireless speaker instead of a CD player since it is a digital release compared to back then where Adele’s albums were not available in streaming services.

The tone of the album has a whimsical sound while paying tribute to Judy Garland including the first song “Strangers By Nature.” The song is a love letter to all her former boyfriends and ex-husband kind of like the To All the Boys I Loved film series except less cheesy.

Then we have the hit single from the album, “Easy On Me” which felt like “Hello: The Sequel.” Even the music video of the song was also directed by Xavier Dolan and filmed in Québec; however, it’s set in New Hampshire. Next, Adele slow jams the news in “My Little Love” where we hear a conversation between her and her son, Angelo, to whom she dedicates the album.

Another reason why the album should be heard in its entirety is that that song and some of the rest of the songs were long. They also tackle her being lonely and depressed like in “I Drink Wine” and “Woman Like Me”. The songs “Oh My God” and “All Night Parking” felt like the type of songs that Ariana Grande would make, as “Oh My God” was produced by one of Grande’s collaborators Max Martin.

The album ends on a happy note with “Love is A Game” where she says she will love again at some point; this closer sounded like it could have been done by Gladys Knight and the Pips.

I think 30 might get Best Album in the Grammy Awards in 2023 and while it is not Adele’s best album, she still sounds brilliant vocally.