Adele 30 Available now
Adele had just released her last album when the Obamas and David Cameron were Prime Minister. The Obamas also held the White House.
It was yesterday six years ago. As if it were a law, her albums must be mailed one month prior to Christmas.
Adele is the one-woman Black Friday in music. Her release date can be a motivator for other stars to alter theirs.

Adele has been married three times since 25, and she’s now in a new relationship. You’ll never guess which of these experiences dominates the proceedings
Taylor Swift shifted the recording of Red ahead to last week, giving us our first hint that thirty would be here. You are now ready for the queen
Adele, a Tottenham woman of working class with an affinity for four-letter letters isn’t your typical royal. But look at who has just interviewed her – Oprah Winfrey, in the same California garden where she quizzed Harry and Meghan.
And look at how people respond to Adele’s ups and downs. We feel what she’s feeling, in a way that hasn’t happened with anybody since Princess Diana.
This bond didn’t come about because Adele was famous or glamorous, though she is both those things now. She was relatable, which is what led to this bond.
You can see it now, but her singing was the beginning. Our hearts are melted by her singing voice. No other singer can express emotion like she.
At 30 years old, she still has much to get emotional about.
Adele, who released 25 years ago, has been married twice and is now in a relationship again. You’ll never guess which of these experiences dominates the proceedings. Yes, it’s a break-up album, like her masterpiece, 21.
It’s not addressed at all to Simon Konecki, her ex: Adele is singing mostly to herself.

Adele has been married three times since 25, and she’s now in a new relationship. You’ll never guess which of these experiences dominates the proceedings
‘This album is self-destruction,’ she told Vogue, ‘then self-reflection and then sort of self-redemption.’ The self-destruction, as you might expect, isn’t much fun.
‘I’ll be taking flowers,’ she announces, ‘to the cemetery of my heart’ – and that is the very first line, the queen’s gambit. It’s a hell of a statement, but the song it introduces, a swirl of strings called Strangers By Nature, is nothing special.
Sad songs can be much more than mere misery stories. For half an hour here Adele’s lyrics have a scorching candour, and the middle-aged men writing the melodies – mainly Greg Kurstin, in one case Max Martin – struggle to keep up.
Two tracks contain voice recordings, which she uses as evidence to her distress. We hear Angelo her son talking to Angelo on one track called My Little Love. Although it makes a powerful raw material, the raw material remains.
Refreshing as it is when music is conversational, actual conversation isn’t music.
Halfway through, Easy On Me is the highlight. This single is good but does not make the album stand out. With I Drink Wine (a piano-based ballad that Kurstin channels his McCartney), things start to improve.
Now comes the bullseye, Hold On. This gospel ballad was co-written by Inflo (a young London producer). It goes all the way from despair (‘I truly hate being me’) to defiance (‘You are still strong’), and the chords match the fire in her voice.
It’s Adele’s best song since Someone Like You.
The next track, Tobias Jesso Jr’s To Be Loved, is almost as forceful. In a math twist 30 finishes somewhere between 25- and 21.
Adele’s live comeback, in Hyde Park next summer, should be magnificent.