Adele’s New Album, ’25,’ Channels ‘Early-Life Crisis’
Adele’s new album, 25, seems to be channeling the emotions from her early-life crisis. It’s the same crisis that led the record-shattering UK singer to take an extended break from singing while she raised her young son.
The 27-year-old singer/songwriter has shared some of the emotions that went in to making her most recent album, 25, which, like all her other albums, is named for the age she was when she began working on it.
To say that this was the most anticipated album of the year would be an understatement. Adele arguably has the largest fan base in the world, even beating out Taylor Swift. Adele’s songs are generally more mature, yet playful enough to reach a wide age group.
But this album is reportedly heavier than her previous albums, thanks to what the media is referring to as an “early-life crisis.” The songs seem to be alluding to the concept of lost youth and growing into more serious ideals. Adele admitted to USA Today that the album is quite a bit different than her previous works.
“It’s definitely heavier, I agree. I’m sort of in that weird limbo state where you’re deciding, ‘What is the next chapter of my life?’ That’s what all my friends and me are going through: We’re having that early-life crisis you have at around 25, looking at 30. We know we have to enter adulthood, but we’re all a bit frightened and sad about it.”
The album has already been set up for success after the release of her hit single “Hello” on October 23. It instantly shot to number one on the charts, and it’s remained there ever since. It broke records with more than 1.1 million downloads in its first week and hundreds of thousands after that.
Even though the album is expected to perform exceptionally well, Adele says she doesn’t think it will be her top-performing album. During her USA Today interview, Adele stated that her album 21, which dominated the charts as the top-selling album in both 2011 and 2012, would remain her strongest song collection.
“I don’t think I’ll ever have more success with an album than I did with 21,” she said. “Every album I ever make will be following 21, because of the impact that album had.”
Adele also spoke about the maturity she developed over her three-year hiatus spent with her son, Angelo. He just barely turned three, and she stated that her life hasn’t been the same since he came into this world.
“I was blown away by how much having a kid can change your life. It made me reflect, not so much on my childhood as on my teen years. I missed the intimacy I had with my friends before we all became grownups. I thought it would be a longer journey to get here — it kind of crept up on me.”
25 is set for release on November 20, but there was talk of it being leaked Tuesday, three days before it’s set to hit stores.
One Twitter user posted, “Just copped that new Adele album at Target. retweet if you want me to leak it.”
The user with the album is calling herself Florence Welch @HausofFrancis. The user reportedly shared the album with a few people before XL Recordings stepped in and asked them to remove the album from any media source before legal action was taken.
Just copped that new Adele album at Target ? retweet if you want me to leak it pic.twitter.com/XOx1wabxcA
— Florence Welch (@HausofFrancis) November 17, 2015
The user, who has not yet been identified, tweeted reviews of the album, with comments such as, “Adele honestly outdid herself with 25,” and “‘When We Were Young’ is the best song on 25.” There’s still speculation as to whether or not there’s truth to the claims of this Twitter profile.
Regardless of the possible 25 leak, Adele’s new album channelling her “early-life crisis,” will still be one of the best performing albums of the year, if not the best.
[Image via Jason Merritt/Getty Images]
