25 (Adele album)

25
Studio album by Adele
Released	20 November 2015 (2015-11-20)
Recorded	2013–15
Genre	Pop soul folk R&B
Length	48:25
Label	XL
Producer	Danger Mouse Samuel Dixon Paul Epworth Greg Kurstin Max Martin Linda Perry Ariel Rechtshaid Mark Ronson Shellback The Smeezingtons Ryan Tedder
Adele chronology
Live at the Royal Albert Hall (2011) 25 (2015)
Singles from 25
"Hello" Released: 23 October 2015

25 is the third studio album recorded by British singer and songwriter Adele. It was released on 20 November 2015, through XL Recordings. Following the release and international success of her second studio album 21 (2011), Adele considered quitting the music industry and going out on a positive note. However, Adele decided to take a hiatus instead and raise her son. During her sabbatical, she suffered from writer's block and rescheduled studio sessions for a new album, fearing she had lost her ability to write songs. In 2013, Adele had a breakthrough and the material that eventually became 25 manifested, with writing and recording continuing through 2015.

Titled as a reflection of her life and frame of mind at 25 years old, 25 is a "make-up record". The album's lyrical content features themes of Adele yearning for her old self, her nostalgia, and melancholy about the passage of time as well as themes of motherhood and regret. In contrast to Adele's previous work, the production of 25 incorporated the use of electronic elements and creative rhythmic patterns, with elements of 1980's R&B and organs. Like 21, Adele collaborated with producer and songwriter Paul Epworth and Ryan Tedder, along with new collaborations with Max Martin and Shellback, Greg Kurstin, Danger Mouse, the Smeezingtons, and Tobias Jesso Jr.

The lead single, "Hello", was a critical and commercial success, topping the charts in 28 countries including the United Kingdom and the United States, where "Hello" became the first single ever to sell one million downloads in a release week.

Background

Following the release of 21 (2011), Adele was considering quitting the music industry all together, stating she thought it was better to "go out on a high". However, in early 2012 she announced she was simply taking a hiatus from music in order to "take time and live a little bit". Her hiatus from music came to an end after the birth of her first child in October 2012, with Adele stating her son inspired her to start recording music again in order for him to "know what I do". Before the album's recording came under way, Adele made a conscious decision not to try and create another 21 and would not make another "heartbreak record".

Prior to the album's release, 25 was listed as one of the most anticipated albums of 2015. Billboard, Fuse, The Sydney Morning Herald and numerous others placed the album at number one on their most anticipated list, with the latter stating "if Adele releases her third album in 2015, she could dominate the year." Prior to the album's official announcement, music journalists and fans speculated that the album would be titled 25 continuing the age theme from Adele's previous releases 19 and 21. On the eve of her 26th birthday in May 2014, Adele posted a message via her Twitter account which prompted media discussion about her next album. The message, "Bye bye 25... See you again later in the year", was interpreted by outlets including Billboard and Capital FM as meaning that her next album would be titled 25 and released later in the year.

Writing and recording

Early sessions and writer's block

Sessions with Ryan Tedder were unfruitful, though he and Adele co-wrote "Remedy".

On 10 February 2013, she confirmed that she was in the very early stages of her third album and was having meetings while staying in Los Angeles for the 85th Academy Awards. Initially recording sessions for 25 were unsuccessful, in which Adele suffered from writer's block. Adele rescheduled the album's recording stating she did not feel "ready", but returned to the studio when her son was eighteen months old, which inspired her to write an album about motherhood. In an interview on BBC One, it was revealed that a whole album about being a mother was written and scrapped because she thought the material was "too boring".

Adele stated that the album took a long time to write, saying she did not think the album was ever going to be finished, continuing to state the process was long. During the initial recording Adele ran out of ideas and lost the ability to write songs, but her team encouraged her to go back to the drawing board and keep writing. After what seemed like a very arduous process to the singer, who feared she may have lost the inspiration for her writing, the material that eventually became 25 manifested. Adele attempted to write 25 numerous times, but struggled, after taking time off due to motherhood Adele returned to the studio but stated she was not ready to start writing. She then went on to take more time off repeating this process "a couple of times".

In 2013, Adele began recording once again, contacting friend and producer Kid Harpoon. Adele and Harpoon went to his recording studio, however the session was unproductive with Adele saying: "I don't know why I wasn't ready, I just couldn't access myself." A few months passed and Adele traveled to New York to begin working with long time collaborator Ryan Tedder, but the sessions with Tedder were also unfruitful. However Adele did use one of the songs from the sessions entitled "Remedy", which was written about her best friend, her grandparents, her boyfriend, and her son. Adele was excited by the song and believed she was finally creating music that she liked and felt confident about. After recording the song along with others she flew producer Rick Rubin to the studio who was displeased with the songs that she had written, and encouraged Adele to go back to the "drawing board". Rubin described the songs as having no depth and stated to Adele;

Adele was anxious to be finished with the new album and move forward with life, I stressed the most important thing was to be true to her voice, even if that took longer and was more work... In the new material I heard, it was clear she wasn't the primary writer — many of the songs sounded like they might be on a different pop artist's album. It's not just her voice singing any song that makes it special."

Breakthrough sessions

Greg Kurstin in 2013

Adele continued to suffer with writers block, until she met with producer Greg Kurstin. During the meeting with Kurstin, Adele had a breakthrough: "It all poured right out of me." "Hello" was written by Adele and Kurstin and produced by the latter, who also played bass, guitar, piano and keyboards, with Adele being credited as a drummer. The song was written in Chiswick, London, something not normally done by Adele, who said she likes to write her music at home. The writing process for the song was slow, taking six months to complete. Initially Adele and Kurstin started writing the first verse; finishing half of the song, six months later Adele contacted Kurstin to finish the song with her, with Kurstin stating he was not sure "if Adele was ever going to come back and finish it."

The main inspiration behind the record came from her motherhood, as well as singer Madonna's 1998 studio album, Ray of Light, and its song "Frozen". Although Adele clarified that she "wasn't exposed to Madonna's catalog earlier" in life, she loved Madonna's electronic musical foray after hearing it. "I believe everything she says on it. Some of the songs on it are an ode to her first kid, and I needed that to challenge me." Along with Ray of Light, Adele also listened to musician Moby's fifth studio album, Play.

You know what I found so amazing about [Ray of Light]?... That's the record Madonna wrote after having her first child, and for me, it's her best. I was so all over the place after having a child, just because my chemicals were just hitting the fucking roof and shit like that... I was just drifting away, and I couldn't find that many examples for myself where I was like, 'Fuck, they truly came back to themselves,' until someone was like, 'Well, obviously, Ray of Light.'

During the album's recording Adele traveled to Los Angeles in order to give the recording sessions "one last push". Adele spent two months in Los Angeles, and was determined to move forward with the album. During the sessions in Los Angeles she also wrote "When We Were Young" alongside Tobias Jesso Jr., the track was written at a rented house where Adele used Philip Glass' piano. Adele also worked with singer-songwriter Bruno Mars, initially the pair had attempted to create an uptempo song, however they created a "dramatic ballad" entitled "All I Ask".

After unfruitful sessions with Tedder, the pair went to lunch where Adele heard Taylor Swift's single "I Knew You Were Trouble". Tedder informed Adele that the song was produced by Max Martin, and sent her clips of his work. Shortly after this, Adele began work on the track "Send My Love (To Your New Lover)", reworking a skeleton of a song she had written when she was thirteen years old after being inspired by the release of Frank by Amy Winehouse. Kurstin also co-wrote and produced the song "Million Years Ago". The song was not set to be included on the record, but was added three days prior to the album's mixing.

Scrapped tracks

Adele co-wrote a song called "Alive" with Jesso and Sia. Initially written for 25 along with "Bird Set Free" and another track, Adele decided not to include any of the songs on the album. Following Adele's decision, Sia asked her permission to send the track to Rihanna, which Adele agreed to as long as her vocals were taken off the record, stating: "I don't want my vocal floating around out there on a demo." Sia eventually recorded it herself for her seventh studio album This Is Acting. "Bird Set Free" was recorded by Adele but she decided not to include it due to it being too similar to Sia's work. Like "Alive" the song was later included on This Is Acting.

Music and lyrics

My last record was a break-up record, and if I had to label this one, I would call it a make-up record. Making up for lost time. Making up for everything I ever did and never did. 25 is about getting to know who I've become without realising. And I'm sorry it took so long but, you know, life happened."

“

”

— Adele, on the album's lyrical content

Consisting of eleven tracks, Adele aimed to depart from the "young-fogey" sound of her sophomore album 21 and added synths and drum pads in order to modernize 25‍ '​s musical style. The album's production incorporated the use of electronic elements and creative rhythmic patterns, unlike its predecessor, with elements of 80's R&B and organ haze's. Described as a collection of "panoramic ballads and prettily executed detours", Leah GreenBlatt of Entertainment Weekly noted the album's "stately production" characterizing is as being built over minor-key melancholy, stylistic flourishes and simplicity. Leonie Cooper of the NME summed the album's production up as changing from "moody balladeering to smoky jazz bar grooves" whilst a reviewer from Us Weekly stated the album was built upon piano ballads, R&B grooves, minimalistic arrangements, gospel, blues and acoustic guitars.

Adele's vocals on 25 were described as being capable of conveying emotion. Her vocals were noted by Samantha O'Connor of The 405 as ranging from "thunderous roars and rib-cracking falsettos over large dramatic piano swells to fuzzy, warm lower-register rumblings", and were characterised as having a raw delivery, with minimal engineering, leaving "her vocal idiosyncrasies to crackle, croak and coo, bringing more depth" to the album. Bruce Handy of Vanity Fair stated the Adele's throat surgery had not impacted her voice, continuing to say her voice still contained character and power: "brassy yet husky, smoky yet clarion, she still sounds like the result of a genetic experiment fusing Amy Winehouse’s vocal chords with Céline Dion’s lungs, or even Tom Jones’."

Described by Adele as a "make-up album", she attempted to move away from the theme of break-ups that dominated 21‍ '​s lyrical content. Adele stated that 25‍ '​s lyrics focuses on themes of her "trying to clear out the past," and moving on. She continued to say that the albums lyrics are a reflection of the frame of mind she was in during that age, describing the time as a "turning point" where she was in the centre of adolescence and adulthood and the start of a time where she would "go into becoming who I’m going to be forever without a removal van full of my old junk." Lyrically, the album touches upon various themes including the singers fear of getting older, her childhood, regrets, longing for her family, nostalgia and her role as a mother. Mark Savage of the BBC, noted the album's themes were a departure from the anger and heartbroken themes that dominated 21, stating that the lyrics were "reflective" allowing the singer "to re-examine her past relationships". Savage continued to state that songs such as "When We Were Young" introduce the album's key theme of Adele's "uneasy acceptance of adulthood."

Songs

25 opens with "Hello", a piano ballad that borrows heavily from soul music. During the chorus Adele is heard singing the lines over layers of backing vocals, piano and drums which were described by the Telegraph as leaning "towards a very luscious wall of sound". The track also contains drums which Adele was credited for providing. Lyrically, the track focuses on themes of nostalgia and regret and plays out like a conversation. The follow up, "Send My Love (To Your New Lover)", has been compared to the work of singer-songwriter Taylor Swift due its "upbeat, poppy" sound. Adele describes it as a "happy you're gone" song, which was inspired by an ex boyfriend.

The drum-filled folk song, "I Miss You", has been described as "explicitly seductive" due to the lyrics: "Bring the floor up to my knees/Let me fall into your gravity/And kiss me back to life to see/Your body standing over me." "When We Were Young", another piano-led ballad, is "a reflective serenade about treasuring the moments you will look back on in years to come", while the ballad "Remedy", was written about Adele's best friend, her grandparents, her boyfriend, and her son. "Water Under the Bridge" is a mid-tempo disco-pop song, featuring an electo-drum beat and a tropical, trip hop riff, with Adele proclaiming to her lover "If gonna let me down, let me down gently/Don't pretend that you don't want me/Our love ain't water under the bridge". The gospel-tinged "River Lea" talks about the singer growing up in Tottenham, London, England.

Release and promotion

A release date for 25 was first suggested in early August 2014, when Paul Moss suggested that an album would be released in 2014 or 2015. However, accounts filed by Adele's label XL Recordings in October 2014 ruled out the possibility of a 2014 release. In August 2015, Billboard reported that Adele's label had intentions of releasing her third studio album sometime in November 2015. In October 2015, the album was rumoured to be released on 20 November 2015, after which numerous journalists speculated that other musicians had pushed back their albums in order to avoid chart competition with her, with artists such as Justin Bieber, 5 Seconds of Summer and One Direction releasing their albums before Adele's, so that their sales and chart placements would not be affected.

On 18 October, a 30-second clip of "Hello" was shown on UK television during a commercial break on The X Factor. It teased a new song from Adele after three years, with viewers hearing her singing the first verse of "Hello" with its lyrics appearing on a black screen. Three days later, Adele released a letter to her fans through social media addressing the album, in which she confirmed that the album would be titled 25. Adele stated that the title is a reflection on her age and the frame of mind she was in during that age, describing the time as a "turning point" where she was in the centre of adolescence and adulthood and the start of a time where she would "go into becoming who I’m going to be forever without a removal van full of my old junk." She added: "My last record was a break-up record and if I had to label this one I would call it a make-up record. I'm making up with myself. I'm making up for lost time." Adele confirmed the next day 25 would be released on 20 November 2015, and revealed its cover simultaneously on her social media. On 19 November, The New York Times reported that the album will not be released on streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music.

Live performances

Main articles: Adele at the BBC and Adele Live in New York City

On 27 October, BBC One announced plans for a one-hour television special presented by Graham Norton in which he would talk to Adele about her new album. Adele at the BBC was recorded before a live audience on 2 November and transmitted on BBC One on 20 November, coinciding with the album's release. A short extract of the programme was previewed during the 5 November edition of BBC One's The One Show; it shows Adele performing "Hello" and chatting to Norton. On 27 October it was also announced that the singer would make an appearance on the US entertainment series Saturday Night Live on 21 November. On 30 October, Adele confirmed through her Facebook page that she would be performing a one-night-only concert titled Adele Live in New York City at the Radio City Music Hall on 17 November. Subsequently, NBC confirmed they will air the concert special on 14 December.

Singles

On 23 October 2015, "Hello" was released as the album's lead single and was made available for purchase and streaming, with its music video released on the same day. It has since compiled over 100 million views on YouTube within 5 days. It is the second-fastest video to hit 100 million YouTube views ever and the fastest to reach 100 million on Vevo previously held by "Wrecking Ball" by Miley Cyrus back in 2013. The song reached number one in the UK Singles Chart on 30 October, with a combined first week sales of 330,000 copies. The figure was the largest opening week sales for a single since James Arthur's "Impossible", which achieved a volume of 490,000 sales in 2012. The song sold 1,112,000 digital downloads and 61.2 million streams in its first week, resulting in "Hello" debuting at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 (becoming Adele's fourth number-one single in the United States) on the issue dated 14 November 2015.

Commercial performance

During its first day of release in the UK 25 sold over 300,000 copies and by its third day had sold 538,000. In the United States, Columbia Records shipped 3.6 million physical copies of the album to stores, the most since NSYNC's No Strings Attached which shipped 4.2 million units in 2000. The album sold 1.9 million copies after two days of availability, and 2.3 million after three. In three days, 25 became the biggest-selling album of 2015 in the United States, according to Nielsen Music. David Bakula, Senior Vice President of Analytics and Client Development at Nielsen Music, predicted that the album would sell 2.9 million in its first week of release. Bakula claimed that sales could even hit 3 million units, calling the success of the album "incredible".

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
The A.V. Club	A–
Billboard
The Daily Telegraph
Entertainment Weekly	A–
The Independent
NME
Paste	8.2/10
Pitchfork Media	7.3/10
PopMatters
Slant Magazine

25 received generally favourable reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 75, based on 29 reviews. Neil McCormick from The Daily Telegraph gave the album a rating of five out of five stars, saying that "Covering much of the same kind of musical and emotional terrain, 25 is certainly the equal of its predecessor... The beauty of Adele's singing is how effortless it is... She gives herself space, words falling neatly with music and rhythm, albeit she has the advantage of being able to stretch vowels and add syllables apparently at will." Another positive review came from Mark Savage of BBC who believed that "overall, the record is a worthy successor to 21... [Adele's] vocals are undiminished, conveying sorrow, joy, sincerity and warmth, often in the space of a single phrase. And the A-list hitmakers who populate the record wisely build the songs around her presence," adding that "Well, your ears won't bleed, but your tear ducts are going to get a workout."

Leah Greenblatt of Entertainment Weekly called it "A record that feels both new and familiar--a beautiful if safe collection of panoramic ballads and prettily executed detours". Billboard praised Adele's vocal performance writing that it's "swathed in echo, sounding like she’s wailing beneath the vaults of the planet’s most cavernous cathedral, they hit hard." The Los Angeles Times wrote, "Adele’s fans have been waiting for years for new Adele songs to explain their experiences to them. And they get a worthy batch on 25, an album so full of heavy-duty drama that it makes a more lighthearted peer such as Katy Perry seem like a Pez dispenser." Paul Bridgewater of The Line of Best Fit commended the album for being "almost an embarrassment of (pop) riches", arguing that it included "the quintessential DNA of what a 21st-century pop record is" and "some incredible modern classics".

Reviewing the album for The Independent, Andy Gill rated it three out of five stars. He praised tracks like "River Lea" and "Send My Love (To Your New Lover)", calling them "isolated moments of musical intrigue scattered here and there through the album", but Gill believed that the songs on 25 gradually became "swamped by the kind of dreary piano ballads that are Adele's fall-back position". Bruce Handy, writing a review for the album from Vanity Fair, regards the music genre as old-style R&B to modern pop music, where the songs are mostly ballads. In three reviews, the song, "Million Years Ago", was described as a folk tune, and, "I Miss You", by a lone reviewer was described as being folk, with the first being called 1960's folk and European folk.

Track listing

Standard edition
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
1.	"Hello"	Adele Adkins Greg Kurstin	Kurstin	4:55
2.	"Send My Love (To Your New Lover)"	Adkins Max Martin Shellback	Martin Shellback	3:43
3.	"I Miss You"	Adkins Paul Epworth	Epworth	5:49
4.	"When We Were Young"	Adkins Tobias Jesso, Jr.	Ariel Rechtshaid	4:51
5.	"Remedy"	Adkins Ryan Tedder	Tedder	4:05
6.	"Water Under the Bridge"	Adkins Kurstin	Kurstin	4:00
7.	"River Lea"	Adkins Brian Burton	Danger Mouse	3:45
8.	"Love in the Dark"	Adkins Samuel Dixon	Dixon	4:46
9.	"Million Years Ago"	Adkins Kurstin	Kurstin	3:47
10.	"All I Ask"	Adkins Bruno Mars Philip Lawrence Christopher Brody Brown	The Smeezingtons	4:32
11.	"Sweetest Devotion"	Adkins Epworth	Epworth	4:12
Total length:				48:25

Target and Japanese bonus tracks
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
12.	"Can't Let Go"	Adkins Linda Perry	Perry	3:18
13.	"Lay Me Down"	Adkins Jesso, Jr.	Mark Ronson Lil Silva (add.)	4:30
14.	"Why Do You Love Me"	Adkins Rick Nowels	Rechtshaid	3:59
Total length:				60:12

Note

• Credits adapted from iTunes metadata and the booklet of Target's bonus tracks edition.

Release history

List of release dates, showing region, edition, formats, label, and reference

Region	Date	Edition(s)	Format(s)	Label	Cat.	Ref.
Various	20 November 2015	Standard	CD digital download vinyl	XL Columbia	XLCD740
United States		Deluxe	CD		50281802
Japan				Universal Music	BGJ-5252

External links

• Official website