Adele has released her newest single and video “Easy On Me”! Mostly, singers reflect a string of autobiographical events in a melodic body of work, sleuthing through their track lists. Not Adele, though. At least for now. She’s decidedly swerving into memory lane (that’s more of a deserted road with shrubbery) just behind various figures playing out her previous relationship in the music video directed by Xavier Dolan for her most recent piano ballad.
One glance at the opening lyric, “There ain’t no gold in this river that I’ve been washin’ my hands in forever,” which is symbolic of the relationship, adds up to equal the why. The switch to “waters” in the opposing line revealing a dating pool that, while having hope to splash into later down the track, can’t shamelessly find it in herself to do so now.
Yet, that’s not where the heartbreaking tale is, rather snowballing back to the black and white frames stitched into the first few minutes of her in the abandoned house. Listen in a little, and perhaps you’ll find the fragments of her previous Greg Kurstin collaboration, the record-breaking “Hello,” heard in its squeaky floorboards. A packed-up suitcase later, a surprising switch in color occurs about three and a half minutes in following her declaration of, “Now I give up.” It matches the airy, laid-back Londoner nature of her that it too ends on a much too bright light cast against her face and a wind machine billowing her now longer blonde hair. After all, it sort of echoes that she feels lighter, right?
Watch the music video for Adele’s comeback single “Easy On Me” below, and you can listen along on any streaming service. You can find the single on her upcoming album 30, which is set for release on November 19.