When it comes to an anomaly of a modern-day artists then Adele is one of them.
The British singer is one of very few singers that flips the music table every time she resurfaces from hibernation.
This time was no different, with rumours of her return circulating online for a while and we finally got confirmation this week that she's finally coming back.
Her social media pages and website were updated with new artwork and a newsletter sign-up page.
It culminated with the “Rolling in the Deep” songstress announcing her single “Easy On Me”, with a short snippet from the music video, set to be released on October 15.
Easy On Me - October 15 pic.twitter.com/7HRvxAfEqy
— Adele (@Adele) October 5, 2021
But why is there all this fanfare every time Adele drops a project?
Adele burst on the music in 2007 with her breakthrough hit “Hometown Glory”, a year after graduating from high school and shook the music industry with her soulful sound for someone still so young.
Her exceptional song writing and minimalist production not only wowed UK audiences but those across the globe.
The music industry at the time was filled with pop stars and hip hop was beginning to make inroads for a greater appeal.
However, when it came to female vocalists there wasn’t much coming from American artists, aside from Beyoncé and her global appeal.
In the UK at the time, both Adele and Amy Winehouse were filling this gap when it came to a soulful singers whose experiences resonated with so many. Adele’s big US break happened after her “Saturday Night Live” performance in 2008 and the rest is history.
She became a worldwide phenomenon with “19”, and while her debut album was well-received critically and had moderate success, it was her sophomore album “21” that saw the singer solidify herself as a superstar.
“21” went on to storm the global charts, win awards left right and centre along with the album spawning one hit single after the next.
However, unlike her peers, she toured very little and had to cancel the US leg of her promotional tour of “21”, due to a vocal haemorrhage on her vocal chords for which she needed surgery.
She then disappeared from the public eye for the most part only doing the occasional doing live performance at awards shows, yet her music was still growing insanely. She quietly enjoyed the fruits of her labour and went on to get married and have a child.
That is, until she dropped the teaser for “Hello” in 2015.
Again, she was able to turn the music industry upside down with “25” achieving similar if not great results than “21”.
She was getting critical, commercial and chart success with an album that was in sharp contrast to the EDM wave that was taking over music at that time.
Still unheard of, at the time she opted to drop one lead single followed by the full album .
Beyoncé famously mentioned in her “Life Is But A Dream” HBO documentary in 2013 that “people don’t make albums anymore.
They just try to sell a bunch of li’l quick singles. And they burn out, and they put out a new one, and they burn out, and they put out a new one".
To this day it still speaks true.
We get bombarded with music with an artist dropping their entire album in streaming through singles and by the time an album drops it’s underwhelming.
All due to this never-ending race of streaming numbers and charting positions.
Couple that with the fact that there are very few artists that make cohesive bodies of work that luckily seem to be turning the tide when looking at the new generation of artists like Billie Eilish, Doja Cat and Lil Nas X.
But specifically, at that time in the mid-2000s, artists would just drop one single after the next with an album in sight – except Adele.
While thematically she never really stretches herself, the things she chooses to speak about resonate so greatly and the way she paints a picture with her music and lyrics is something very few can do well. Writing from her personal experiences hasn’t failed her yet and this time it looks like it will no different.
She recently went through a messy divorce and was romantically linked to UK rapper Skepta and is now dating American sports agent Rich Paul.
Along with this, the singer also had a major physical transformation and we can say for sure all these life-changing events will pop up somehow in her album.
Adele is a storyteller in a way that very few modern-day artists are.
She makes her music, minds her own business, collects her awards and doesn’t bother a soul.
This next era will be interesting since this will be her first release at the height of the streaming age, but one thing is for sure. We are ready to be in our feelings with a bottle of red wine in hand crying over a lover we haven’t even met yet.