By Katie Servas – Staff Reporter

Say “Hello” to Adele’s new album, “30.”

After a six-year hiatus, Adele has released her most open and genre bending album yet. “30,” her fourth studio album was released on November 19. This album has included many differences in her preferred genre and is stylistically different from her previous albums. 

The entire album is a storyline of her entire relationship with her ex-husband, Simon Konecki, from how they met until their divorce, and how it felt to Adele. She was very particular about the positioning of each track and where they lined up in the album because she was motivated to present a timeline of the relationship and her attempts to love and make amends with herself.

Adele’s first single off of the album, “Easy On Me,” is a soft-building piece that emotes her needed relief and healing and how she changed herself to suit the needs of her ex-husband and her son. It expresses her inability to enjoy her career and how her efforts to maintain a stable relationship with her son was tried once she divorced. She was expressing why she needed to put herself first while explaining it to her son in the simplest way. This track is taking over the charts, sitting at number one this past week on the Billboard Top 100.

The other tracks on the album release her true emotions she locked away and how she felt through the process of separation. The album opener “Strangers By Nature ” is a lyrical breathtaker. The piece states the effects of the relationship ending and how it seemed to have changed her perspective, and how the dust settled. The verses show the immense weight the divorce took over her while stating how her perspective changed. It also relays the pressure of expectations from her ex-husband and the media. The opener is the leading sequence that hooks one to continue listening just like the effect of a novel. 

As one continues to listen to each track, more sections of the story and Adele’s search for purity and security within herself are revealed. Many of the songs have a message along these lines, but, they are from different perspectives and time periods throughout the past few years, along with new experiences she had. 

Another popular song off of the album is “Oh My God.” This is the fifth track off the album “30” and is also charted at number five on the Billboard Top 100. This track has a more R&B and soul style, while communicating her desire to have fun and wanting to put herself out there. It demonstrates her urge to not be shown down the wrong path again and her willingness to open up to others again. 

There are also many other honorable mentions, “My Little Love,” “Hold On,” and “I Drink Wine,” which are all soulful and lyrical pieces that present struggles Adele undergoes throughout the last few years. They show her scuffle with alcohol, her son’s perspective on the divorce, and explanation to her son about who she is and what she’s experienced. These tracks have some air time following “Easy On Me” and  ”Oh My God.” 

Overall, this is an impeccable album imbued with emotion, experience, and perspective.

Rating: 5 out of 5 hello’s