While 21 provided us with every song we’d ever need to cry to after a breakup, 25 was slightly more light-hearted, featuring dedications to her son, who even provided backing vocals on Sweetest Devotion.
25’s first single, Hello, was also famed for breaking the internet with its music video which, bizarrely, featured Adele using a flip phone.
The first look at Easy on Me actually shows her putting a cassette tape into a car radio player, so although her technological use is still yet to advance, a lot of other things have changed for Adele over the years.
Here are five things we think (and hope) might inspire her new album
Adele toured Australia
This probably won’t inspire much of her music, but Adele’s 2017 tour was a huge deal! In Sydney especially, she packed out ANZ stadium and the train line that took the audience there. The $300+ tickets were worth every dime, considering Adele’s love for a chat meant the show was full of goss. She actually publicly confirmed her marriage to Simon Konecki properly for the first time at her Brisbane show, telling the audience ‘I’m married now!’ as explanation for where she’d been.
She turned 30
This seems like a bit of a no-brainer, given that she’s now 33, but Adele has admitted that her 30th year was really tough and formative. She took to Instagram to celebrate the milestone, writing “This is 31...thank fucking god 💀30 tried me so hard but I’m owning it and trying my hardest to lean in to it all... I’ve changed drastically in the last couple years and I’m still changing and that’s okay.”
She explained on an episode of James Corden’s Carpool Karaoke that 25 would be the last of her albums named after her age.
“I believe in trilogies,” she said. “The next one will be Adele.”
However, a very random stunt recently saw major landmarks – The Eiffel Tower, Brooklyn, Bridge, Westminster, and many more – lit up with ‘30’ in fonts that matched the new look of Adele’s website. Mysterious.
She became a single mum
After about eight years together, Adele’s representatives announced her split from husband Simon Konecki in April 2019. The pair reached a divorce settlement earlier this year, and since, Adele has gone public with her new boyfriend, Rich Paul, who is one of the biggest sports agents in the NBA. However, she has always been notoriously private, so we doubt any specifics on her divorce or her relationship will make it into the album.
She hosted SNL
Although things are now ‘official’, we were first teased with a new album when Adele hosted Saturday Night Live in October last year. She qualified why she was not the musical guest, saying, “there's a couple of reasons. My album isn’t finished, and I’m also too scared to do both…I’d rather just put on some wigs, have a glass of wine or six and just see what happens.”
Instead, Adele participated in the skits and seemed to have a rollicking good time.
WATCH BELOW: Adele sings in a Bachelor skit on Saturday Night Live
She became an ordained minister
This might not seem relevant, but honestly, who better to write love songs than someone who marries other people? Adele became an ordained minister in 2018 so that she could marry her close friend Alan Carr to his partner Paul Drayton in a ceremony held in her garden in Los Angeles, and if that’s not setting the bar high for friendship, I don’t know what is. Alan has also confirmed he was one of the first to hear her new music.
“I’ve heard some tracks on it,” he told Grazia this year.
“Oh my gosh, it’s so amazing. It’s so amazing,” he said.
Between Alan and Adele, we’ve had quite enough of the teasing! Bring on October 15.