25 (Adele album)

Untitled

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 Adele's second studio album 21 (2011), she had considered quitting the music industry and go out on a positive note. However, Adele decided to take a hiatus instead and raise her son. During her sabbatical, she suffered with writer's block and rescheduled the album's studio sessions 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 to 2015. According to the singer, the album's title is a reflection of her when she was 25 and the frame of mind she was in during that age.

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 to sell one million downloads in a release week.

Adele decided to not to make the album available on any music streaming service, such as Spotify, Deezer or Apple Music.

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, SMH 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" from 25.

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 Oscars. 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

Madonna's 1998 studio album, Ray of Light, was a primary inspiration behind 25.

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 Greg Kurstin and produced by the latter, who also played bass, guitar, piano and keyboards, with Adele being credited as a drummer. "Hello" 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." Other inspirations behind the record came from her motherhood, as well as singer Madonna's 1998 studio album, Ray of Light, and its song "Frozen".

You know what I found so amazing about that record?... 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 Furler. 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, Furler 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." Furler 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 Furler's work. Like "Alive" the song was later included on Furler's album This Is Acting.

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 one week. 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. 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.

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 would be recorded before a live audience on 2 November and transmitted later on BBC One. The airdate was subsequently confirmed as 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.

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	77/100
Review scores
Source	Rating
BBC	Positive
Billboard
The Boston Globe	9/10
The Daily Telegraph
Digital Spy
Entertainment Weekly	A-
The Independent
NME
Slant Magazine
Us Weekly

25 received generally positive 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 77 based on 13 reviews. Neil McCormick from The Daily Telegraph gave the album a rating of 5 out of 5 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."

Reviewing the album for The Independent, Andy Gill rated it 3 out of 5 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".

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 Karl Johan Schuster Max Martin	Martin Shellback	3:43
3.	"I Miss You"	Adkins Paul Epworth	Epworth	5:48
4.	"When We Were Young"	Adkins Tobias Jesso Jr.	Ariel Rechtshaid	4:50
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	4:45
9.	"Million Years Ago"	Adkins Kurstin	Kurstin	3:47
10.	"All I Ask"	Adkins Peter Gene Hernandez Christopher "Brody" Brown Philip Lawrence	The Smeezingtons	4:31
11.	"Sweetest Devotion"	Adkins Epworth	Epworth	4:11

Target and Japanese bonus tracks

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
12.	"Can't Let Go"	Mariah Carey · Walter Afanasieff
13.	"Lay Me Down"	Adkins Jesso
14.	"Why Do You Love Me"	Adkins Rick Nowels

Note

• Credits adapted from iTunes metadata.

Release history

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

Region	Date	Format(s)	Label	Edition(s)	Ref.
Worldwide	20 November 2015	CD digital download vinyl	XL Columbia	Standard deluxe

External links

• Official website