Nobody does heartbreak songs quite like Adele. Huge, stirring, stadium-filling ballads that still feel so very personal, as if they were written for you and you alone.
Each of Adele’s albums – 19, 21 and 25 – has brought us soulful songs for the ages, with every return to the studio unearthing new depths of maturity within her extraordinary talent.
I’m sure I’m not the only one to have played Someone Like You on repeat after a bad break-up; the image of Adele turning up out of the blue, uninvited, forever mixed in with actual memories of agonised longing.
Fortunately, it looks as if I’ll soon have fresh tunes to sob-sync along to for the next time some total dodo leaves me snottily scrolling through Spotify.
Audio has emerged appearing to capture Adele announcing her next album will be released in September this year, just in time for when you’re lamenting a holiday romance that just didn’t work out once you returned to the daily grind.
As reported by Stereogum, this announcement was made at the wedding of Adele’s best friend, the author, illustrator and My Same inspiration, Laura Dockrill.
This weekend, February 16, Adele officiated at her friend’s wedding ceremony, and apparently even gave an almighty performance of Rolling in the Deep. Can we all just take a minute to imagine attending a mate’s wedding only to see Adele grabbing the mic, without a Cha Cha Slide in sight.
Taking to the stage at the Mason’s Arms pub, footage from the evening reveals the Make You Feel My Love icon reportedly telling wedding guests to ‘expect my album in September’, before cracking open those imposing vocal chords.
You can listen to the audio yourself in the following clip:
This isn’t the first rumbling we’ve heard about new Adele music being on the way. In January, her manager Jonathan Dickins told Music Week the follow-up to 2015’s 25 is set to be finally released this year, stating ‘the sooner [it comes out] the better’.
On her 31st birthday last May, Adele sent her fans into a tizzy, writing the following reflective yet characteristically humorous message via Instagram:
This is 31…thank f*cking god. 30 tried me so hard but I’m owning it and trying my hardest to lean in to it all. No matter how long we’re here for life is constant and complicated at times.
I’ve changed drastically in the last couple years and I’m still changing and that’s okay. 31 is going to be a big ol’ year and I’m going to spend it all on myself.
For the first time in a decade I’m ready to feel the world around me and look up for once. Be kind to yourself people we’re only human, go slow, put your phone down and laugh out loud at every opportunity.
Learning to REALLY truly love yourself is it, and I’ve only just realised that that is more than enough. I’ll learn to love you lot eventually. Bunch of f*cking savages, 30 will be a drum n bass record to spite you. Chin up eh.
It’s literally been years since we first heard those opening bars of Hello, collectively allowing those lyrics to take hold somewhere a little deeper than your regular singer-songwriter offering.
I have loved Adele at every age, hers and mine, and honestly cannot wait for the explosion of emotions that will be unleashed once more in (fingers crossed) September.
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Jules studied English Literature with Creative Writing at Lancaster University before earning her masters in International Relations at Leiden University in The Netherlands (Hoi!). She then trained as a journalist through News Associates in Manchester. Jules has previously worked as a mental health blogger, copywriter and freelancer for various publications.