14 concert-and-interview TV special with Oprah Winfrey, about her divorce from Simon Konecki, the father of their child, Angelo.
In her six years between albums — a gap extended by the pandemic — Adele has largely stood aside from the miniaturization and gimmickiness of current pop hitmaking.
While many current streaming hits are just two minutes long, half of the songs on “30” run longer than five minutes, including extended stretches of piano and voice alone, taking their time and savoring dynamic, non-metronomic ups and downs.
Even as she sings about desperation and uncertainty, on “30” Adele’s voice is more supple and purposeful than ever, articulating every consonant and constantly ornamenting her melodies without distracting from them.
The songs on “30” can be extravagantly theatrical.
In “Cry Your Heart Out,” the chorus is delivered mockingly — “Cry your heart out, clean your face” — from a computer-tuned girl group, over a beat that evolves imperceptibly from vintage Motown to reggae.
Most of the songs are produced, co-written and largely played by the supremely flexible Greg Kurstin, who abets tracks as varied as the bare-bones piano ballad “Easy on Me” — a plea and a self-justification — and “Oh My God,” a foot-stomper that has Adele wondering whether it’s too soon, or she’s too bruised, to flirt again.
Adele sings to her son in “My Little Love,” offering reassurances and apologies: “I’m so sorry if what I’ve done makes you feel sad,” she offers in a low R&B croon.
On “30,” Adele more calmly extricates herself from a romance in “Woman Like Me,” a low-fi bossa nova produced by Inflo from the British collective Sault, wondering how a suitor could be so lazy and complacent when a little more consistency could win her over.
But more often, Adele’s songs present her as her own target and her own unfinished self-improvement project.
“Let it be known that I cried,” she sings, but later she trumpets, so loud it overloads the microphone, “Let it be known that I tried.” It’s awash in regrets, but decisive; it’s high drama and a musical tour de force.