Adele’s “30” shows a different side of love than her previous work

Kethan Srinivasan Staff Writer

Getting a new Adele album is about as exciting as seeing Halley’s Comet—and, thankfully, that excitement is more alive. The wait for Adele’s fourth record has been the longest. Nearly six years have passed since her release of “25” in 2015. This delay is justified, though, considering we’re talking about the legendary London crooner with 15 Grammys, 18 Billboard Music Awards, an Academy Award and a legion of followers down on their knees, reeling from her crushing ballads of betrayal and doubt. With songs like “Rolling In The Deep,” “Hello” and “Someone Like You,” Adele has consistently been a frequent sighting at the top of the music charts both across the pond and beyond. And now, the public is blinded once again with “30,” a true-to-form Adele record like all others, but with a tale of love like no other.

Like her other albums, Adele drew upon her experiences to create this one. This time, in the aftermath of her divorce from ex-husband Simon Konecki, Adele found herself in what she described to be a state of regret. Speaking to Oprah Winfrey around the album’s release, she related this experience to her early life, noting the lack of a nuclear family in her childhood, and the guilt and anxiety stemming from the fall of the family she created with Konecki and her son, Angelo. In an effort to make sense of her present, Adele wrote this album to explain herself and her new life with Angelo, through the medium she knows best.

As such, unlike her past hits, “30” takes a different stance on the fragility of love—explaining how easy it is to fumble and break on your own, instead of describing how others may break it. Listeners got to have a taste of that differing stance when “Easy On Me,” the record’s second track, was released as a standalone single in October. “I had good in- tentions,” she laments during the bridge, “and the highest hopes / but I know right now / it probably doesn’t even show.”

Continuing this theme, snippets of conversations between Adele and her son are interspersed throughout the track “My Little Love,” which is almost directly aimed at Angelo in its production and lyricism. “I’m holding on (barely),” she says in one passage, for instance, “Mama’s got a lot to learn (it’s heavy).”

The hardest-hitting part of the album, though, is the heft of pain felt in “To Be Loved.” Shortly after the album’s release, a video of Adele performing the ballad from her sofa was released, which has accrued over 7 million views on YouTube. It’s a hymnal piece that conveys a painful sorrow that conceals a glimmer of hope for her and her son’s future. She won’t go quietly, she explains, as her grand belting further underscores her refusal to “live a lie.” “Let it be known, let it be known that I tried,” she further pleads, “I’m so afraid but I’m open wide.”

Adele’s lyricism has aged gracefully, as has the production of her music, to my surprise. A few of the tracks contain some bits that seem like a grand departure from her Southern-esque productions of “21” and her hybrid pop-and-soul of “25,” almost as if she’s created a blend of sounds of her own inspired by newer visionaries like Frank Ocean and Amy Winehouse. The opening track, “Strangers By Nature,” kicks off with a camp production (credits to Ludwig Göransson) of Disney-like strings and flutes accompanied by dramatic and forlorn wording, right from the first stanza. “I’ll be taking flowers to the cemetery of my heart,” she croons. From there, the pace picks up, with a personal favorite being “Oh My God,” which showcases a rare trait among Adele songs—a beat you can dance to. But perhaps the most unique work of music in “30” is found in “All Night Parking,” an interlude that gives a perfect blend of Adele’s jazzy roots and modern pop, thanks to the sampling of the late pianist Errol Garner. Having gotten past the genre shifts and the long tracklists, the trajectory of “30” feels clear and easy to comprehend. Six years of life is not simple enough to whittle down and concisely describe with three-minute pop songs that have amazing hooks and bridges (ahem, “SOUR”). Like I’ve written before,

Adele has repeatedly demonstrated a resounding sense of maturity within every era of stardom. Emotional carnage and a castigation of love aren’t very simple things to remedy, especially when you come so close to the life to which you aspire, in the manner that she had done. The process toward healing is a therapeutic one, and time is a crucial necessity. “30” is reflective of this path—it leaves Adele reassured of her wants and the listener knowing she will find a better place.

Christie Lanfear Staff Writer

Released just over a month ago, “Don’t Look Up” has since broken the Netflix record for the most viewing hours in a single week and has become the company’s third most-watched film. In other words, this disaster comedy movie featuring the all star cast of Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Cate Blanchett, Timothée Chalamet, and Meryl Streep is skyrocketing in popularity. But, does it deserve the hype?

Upon first glance, “Don’t Look Up” seems rather simplistic, perhaps balancing on the edge of receiving the dreaded ‘popcorn’ classification. After all, the plot begins with a graduate astronomy student from Michigan State University named Kate Dibiasky (Jennifer Lawrence) making a potentially catastrophic discovery—a comet that will obliterate Earth is quickly approaching. After confirming her calculations with her advisor, Dr. Randall Mindy (Leonardo DiCaprio), Dibiasky and Mindy present their findings to the President of the United States, Janie Orlean (Meryl Streep). From there, chaos ensues.

Despite this premise being nothing new, there are some thought provoking and extremely impactful themes woven into this movie’s plot that give it more depth than others of its type, which I’m sure has been the driving force of its popularity.

One of the main messages of “Don’t Look Up” is related to social status and college education—the idea that the individual delivering the facts is equally, if not more, important than the facts themselves. A major conflict that

Dibiasky and Mindy face in the film is simply convincing the public and the president that their discovery is real and needs to be addressed. Instead, the two characters are snubbed on the basis of not being from an Ivy League university. One character even responds to their information with: “[We’ll] get some of our people on it. Some Ivy Leaguers, no offense”. Bringing this issue to attention was definitely not a mistake. The film director and writer Adam McKay recognized the unwarranted exaltation placed upon Ivy schools in the real world and incorporated this theme into the plot, raising awareness about the importance of analyzing the facts themselves to see through any societal biases. McKay’s message went through loud and clear due to the fact that the catastrophic events are partly down to the inability of some characters to look past Dibiasky’s non-Ivy status.

Another theme of “Don’t Look Up” is the public’s habit of making light of serious situations. In the movie, Dibiasky and Mindy appear on a popular morning talk show, attempting to present their findings in a way that the public will listen to and absorb. However, they get shot down when the presenters attempt to dismiss their facts to make the situation light-hearted. When Dibiasky loses her patience in an upset outburst, the public have a field day and memes of the event go viral. Her words before exiting the interview are “maybe it’s supposed to be incredibly terrifying... and upsetting...and maybe we’re supposed to stay up all night every night crying.”

Despite her grave words and warnings, no one seems to listen. Even Dibiasky’s ex-boyfriend responds to the interview by calling her a “crazy chick.” McKay drives home his message of the dangers of a superficial culture that values flash over facts, with the remainder of the movie unfolding as a result of the public’s ignorance.

At the center of the film is the issue that is staring at society square in our collective face: a changing climate. McKay puts an interesting twist on the situation, with the elites of society escaping from the disaster on Earth to a far away planet. The characters emerge from their spaceship in almost an Adam and Eve manner, stepping onto the new planet naked and without any knowledge of their new environment. A completely fresh start, so to speak. What happens next—the closing scene of the movie—is rather shocking and satirical, but I will let you experience that comedy for yourself.

I could go on forever about this movie; the messages that it sends to viewers are so impactful and thought provoking. Even if one doesn’t agree with some of the ideas, it is still a quality movie that is definitely worth your time. I encourage you to go watch, and then reflect on the themes you felt were included. I promise that “Don’t Look Up” is definitely not a ‘popcorn’ failure and 100% lives up to its high expectations.