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Adele –
25
(UK, 2015, pop soul)
I like Adele well enough. I can respect what she’s doing, but I am always in amazement when I hear my wife give deep, casual analyses of the songs on this album and on
21. So, I’m just going to let her talk about this one: this album is the perfect companion to
21 because the former album is full of sad songs about heartbreak, but the tone is overall one of hope. Even when she’s mourning the loss of her one true love, she thinks that either she’ll find another one or they’ll get back together.
25, on the other hand, is what happens a few years later. Adele is coming to terms with the fact that this is her life now, that true love has come for her and gone, and now she’s trying to convince herself that the replacement guy—the guys she gets along with and likes well enough—will do. For example, in “Water Under the Bridge”, she is singing “if you’re not the one for me, why do I hate the idea of being free?” The obvious answer is she doesn’t want to be alone. This is a far cry from the exuberance of
21, when she sings of setting fire to the rain over her lost love. In “River Lea” she apologizes in advance for the fact that she will become dissatisfied with her lover … because she knows what true love feels like, and this is not it.