It’s taken six years, but the most hotly anticipated return in music is finally here: Adele has a new single out.
Easy On Me was released at midnight and the accompanying video (above) racked up 11million views in just six hours as eager fans around the world got their first taste of the British singer’s fourth album, 30.
The clip, filmed in Canada last month, is reminiscent of the video for Adele’s 2015 hit Hello, both of which were directed by Xavier Dolan and both are set in the same old country home.
In Hello, Adele arrives and makes a phone call; in Easy on Me, she packs the house up and drives away.
The video ends on a light-hearted note, with a behind-the-scenes clip showing Adele being blown by a wind machine.
30 will be released on 19 November and will reflect the “inner turmoil” she went through following her divorce from husband Simon Konecki in 2019.
“Go easy on me, baby,” Adele sings over a piano as she drives past a newly married couple.
“I was still a child, didn’t get the chance to feel the world around me, I had no time to choose what I chose to do.”
Later, seemingly speaking to Konecki and her son Angelo, Adele sings: “You can’t deny how hard I tried, I changed who I was to put you both first but now I give up.”
Fans (and a few famous names) quickly took to Twitter to share their feelings (so many feelings) about the return of the singer...
Adele’s previous albums – 19, 21 and 25 – have all been global hits. 21 and 25 both won album of the year at the Grammys.
Ahead of the release of 30, Adele shared some insight into its recording with fans on Instagram.
Writing on social media, she said the album served as “my friend who came over with a bottle of wine and a takeaway to cheer me up”.
She wrote: “My wise friend who always gives the best advice. Not to forget the one who’s wild and says ‘It’s your Saturn return babes f*** it, you only live once’.
“The friend who’d stay up all night and just hold my hand while I’d sob relentlessly not knowing why.”
She added: “And then that friend who no matter what, checked in on me even though I’d stopped checking in with them because I’d become so consumed by my own grief.
“I’ve painstakingly rebuilt my house and my heart since then and this album narrates it.”
Easy On Me is out now.