Kultura / Culture
pop. And given that she’s sold tens of millions of copies of her albums and that more people watched her recent interview with Oprah Win- frey than watched the Oscars or the Grammys, it’s no surprise that this singer-songwriter is remaining faith- ful to that which we’ve grown accus- tomed. “Why would I shake up my sound?” asked Adele in response to a remark about her latest album re- sembling the previous one. “No one else is doing my sound…” And that’s precisely why Easy on Me, the new album’s lead single, is a recognisable heartbroken ballad that served as a great reintroduction to Adele’s faultless voice after a six-year absence. 30 is also the first record she’s released since her marriage end- ed, and many of the tracks bear the hallmarks of sleepless nights spent grappling with the consequences of those life changes. And her interviews on this topic have been somewhat be- wildering. Adele claims responsibili- ty for the divorce, but it’s difficult to grasp what caused the breakup. There were no fights, no screaming, no in- fidelities, she says, just a slow reali- sation that she was really unhappy. The album lingers on that unspoken, unidentified sadness, and the sing- er often comes across as emotional- ly confused as she stumbles over the wreckage of her life. However, Adele resisted classi- fying this as her “divorce album”. If nothing else, she said, it was about becoming divorced from, and then rediscovering, herself. “I feel like this album is self-destruction, then self-reflection and then sort of self-re- demption,” she told British Vogue. And that’s what distinguishes this record from her previous three albums. Songs like Hello and Some- one Like You were neatly packaged in the language of a wronged lover, but with 30 every track is complex, messy and uncertain. There are no simple conclusions and easy answers. Adele has gone through hell and emerged with some of the best songs of her career. And sales are obviously break- ing all records simply because we’ve been missing Adele all these years.
while Sheeran himself even once ad- mitted that Adele is the only artist to have sold more records than him over the past 10 years. And Adele did indeed immedi- ately knock him off the top of the charts. Her latest album’s first-week chart sales of 261,000 represented the best first week for an album since Sheeran's Divide was released in 2017. The British girl also toppled legendary Swedish pop group Abba from the throne for 2021, breaking their record of “only” 204,000 first- week sales of comeback album Voy- age. However, her 30 didn’t man- age to emulate her unsurpassed 25, which remains the fastest-selling album of all time in both the U.S. and the UK. It was 2015 when first- week sales of 25 totalled an incred- ible 800,000 copies. Apart from receiving plenty of love from the public, 30 also received wide critical acclaim, with many crit- ics considering it her best album yet. This latest album is again dominat- ed by Adele's classic sound - a com- bination of classic soul and polished
A dele has topped the charts once again, with her latest album, 30, taking the title of 2021’s fastest-selling album in both the U.S. and the UK. And when it comes to selling albums, Ed Sheeran and Adele have always been friendly but serious competi- tion to one another, which is why Sheeran hurried at the end of last year to release his new album before Adele’s. His = Equals album was re- leased 20 days before Adele's own 30, all records With her latest album, the singer knocked Ed Sheeran’s own new Album 30 Adele breaks album, released 20 days prior to hers, off the top of the charts
32 | Muzika » Music
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