Adele talks track list, tour plans for upcoming album: Here's what we know about '30'
Gabriela Miranda
Surprise! Adele has released the official track list for her upcoming album, "30."
In addition to her hit single "Easy on Me," the track list includes a song called "I Drink Wine" and a collaboration with Chris Stapleton.
Last month, the Grammy Award-winning singer released "Easy on Me," her first single in almost six years, and revealed the inspiration behind her lyrics: divorce and her pursuit of happiness.
In various interviews, Adele has dug into how her divorce from Simon Konecki and her relationship to their son, Angelo, influenced her new album, which she told Rolling Stone she began working on in early 2019 and finished in early 2020. Almost three years after her divorce, she's telling her side of the story to her son and all of us through her music.
"I feel like this album is self-destruction, then self-reflection and then sort of self-redemption," she told Vogue. "But I feel ready. I really want people to hear my side of the story this time."
The track list for '30'
On Nov. 1, Adele revealed the official track list for her upcoming album, which features 12 songs and three bonus tracks (on the deluxe edition), on her website. The track list is almost in full chronological order of her experiences, she told Rolling Stone.
The full album arrives Nov. 19.
1. "Strangers by Nature"
2. "Easy on Me"
3. "My Little Love"
4. "Cry Your Heart Out"
5. "Oh My God"
6. "Can I Get It"
7. I Drink Wine"
8. "All Night Parking" interlude (with Erroll Garner)
9. "Woman Like Me"
10. "Hold On"
11. "To Be Loved"
12. "Love Is a Game"
13. "Wild Wild West"
14. "Can't Be Together"
15. "Easy on Me" (with Chris Stapleton)
Adele announces TV specials, talks tour plans
Fans will get more insight on her upcoming album on Nov. 14, a few days before its release, when "Adele One Night Only" premieres on CBS. The two-hour special will feature a concert performance of the songstress' new material as well as an interview with Oprah in her iconic rose garden.
The special was filmed the weekend of Oct. 24 at Los Angeles' Griffith Observatory, according to CBS.
CBS revealed the setlist from the event Nov. 5 which includes a blend of her previous hits along with the new ones fans can expect when the album is released:
"Hello"
"I Drink Wine"
"Make you Feel My Love"
"Love Is A Game"
In a clip from Adele's sitdown with Oprah, she talks about the inspiration behind the song that kicks off the special, "Hello."
"The show is the first time that I am singing it from where I am now," Adele tells Winfrey. "When I wrote it, it was a real ode to little me, older me, all of these things. It's just a song about like 'I'm still here'."
She plans to do double live-performance duty with "An Audience with Adele" on Nov. 21 that is set to broadcast on the British TV network ITV.
The singer also announced two shows far enough ahead so all her U.K. fans can learn the lyrics to "30." Next summer, Adele will play two shows at Hyde Park in London over the summer on July 1 and 2. She wrote in the caption on Instagram: "Oiii Oiiiiiiiiiiiii."
Pre-sale tickets went on sale Oct. 28 for the overseas show and general sales began Oct. 30.
But as of now, fans shouldn't expect a major world tour like the one she did for her previous album, "25."
"It's too unpredictable, with all the rules and stuff," she told Rolling Stone. "I don't want anyone coming to my show scared. And I don't want to get COVID, either."
Nor is she planning on a Las Vegas residency: "There's (expletive) nothing available," she says.
Adele releases single 'Easy on Me'
So what's behind her new single "Easy on Me"? When she left her marriage, her life "fell apart" too, and she's asking people to be kind to her, as seen in some of the song's lyrics.
Go easy on me, baby
I was still a child
Didn't get the chance to
Feel the world around me
I had no time to choose what I chose to do
So go easy on me
"It's not like anyone's having a go at me," Adele told British Vogue. "But it's like, I left the marriage. Be kind to me as well. It was the first song I wrote for the album, and then I didn't write anything else for six months after because I was like, 'OK, well, I've said it all.'"
Billboard announced Oct. 25 that "Easy On Me" had risen to the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100. The song is Adele's fifth song hitting the top spot coming after "Set Fire to the Rain," "Someone Like You," "Rolling In the Deep" and "Hello."
References in Adele's new song:Adele's emotional 'Easy on Me' calls back to the music video for 'Hello'
'It was never about losing weight':Adele on how working out helped her anxiety, cope with divorce
Adele's son was the catalyst that pushed her to write "Easy on Me" and other singles on her album. She told Vogue after the divorce that Angelo asked her simple questions she couldn't answer, like, "'Why don't you love my dad anymore?' And I'd be like, 'I do love your dad. I'm just not in love.' I can't make that make sense to a 9-year-old."
Seemingly Adele addresses those answers for her son in these lyrics:
There ain't no room for things to change
When we are both so deeply stuck in our ways
You can't deny how hard I have tried
I changed who I was to put you both first
But now I give up
Back in 2018, just before Adele would start writing her album, she said this moment with her son pushed her to the studio:
"He said to my face, 'Can you see me?' And I was like, 'Uh, yeah.' And he was like, 'Cause I can't see you.' Well, my whole life fell apart in that moment," Adele told Vogue.
Adele told British Vogue each song on her upcoming album "30" is an open letter to her son when he's older, explaining what she couldn't answer before.
"I just felt like I wanted to explain to him, through this record, when he's in his 20s or 30s, who I am and why I voluntarily chose to dismantle his entire life in the pursuit of my own happiness," she told British Vogue.
Why is the album titled '30'?
It isn't just a number but the age when her "life fell apart, she told British Vogue. Adele was married at 30 and acknowledged that the marriage "wasn't very long." At the same age she got married, her life took an unexpected turn.
In April 2019, Adele and her then-husband announced their separation.
"When I was 30, my entire life fell apart and I had no warning of it," Adele told Vogue.
Since Adele made her decision at 30, she has been on a journey to find "true happiness ever since."
"I was just going through the motions, and I wasn't happy," she told Vogue. "I want my son to see me really love, and be loved. It's really important to me."
'Easy on Me':Adele drops first new music in almost 6 years
Contributing: Rasha Ali, Jenna Ryu, Elise Brisco