ADELE’S TRUMP CARD: RELATABILITY

There’s one unquantifiable factor that gets lost in all the analysis of platforms and demographics regarding the potential impact of 30 (Columbia, 11/19) and lead single “Easy on Me”: People have been feeling emotionally bottled up for the last 18 months, and Adele makes the most emotionally cathartic pop music in the long history of the genre.

If the sturm und drang of her personal life comes out full force in the new material, as she’s intimated on her socials, it will present a rare opportunity for us to have the good cry we've been longing for. It’s impossible to say what that translates to in 2021 numbers, but if it resonates—and we strongly suspect it will—Adele’s new music will have a lane all to itself.