Adele’s ‘Easy on Me’ Lyrics Hint at Why She Divorced Her Husband—Despite How ‘Hard’ She ‘Tried’ to Make It Work
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She’s done it again. Adele‘s “Easy on Me” lyrics show why she’s a masterclass in songwriting. The singer’s recent single marks her first foray back into music since 2015, and naturally, it’s everything fans have been missing all these years.
What are Adele’s “Easy on Me” lyrics about?
Adele first announced “Easy on Me” on October 5, 2021, after a six-year hiatus from music. The song, which was released on October 15, 2021, is the lead single from her 2021 album, 30, which is set to arrive on Friday, November 19. Since announcing her fourth studio album, Adele has admitted that it may be her favorite—and most personal—record yet. “It’s sensitive for me, this record, just in how much I love it,” she said in the November issue of Vogue. “I always say that 21 doesn’t belong to me anymore. Everyone else took it into their hearts so much. I’m not letting go of this one. This is my album. I want to share myself with everyone, but I don’t think I’ll ever let this one go.”
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Given how close this album is to her heart, the record proinently features Adele’s reflections on all the major life changes that have transpired since we last heard from her. That includes her 2019 divorce from Simon Konecki, along with her new relationship with boyfriend Rich Paul. According to the “Chasing Pavements” singer, however, there aren’t any huge callouts on this record like “Hello,” her 2015 single. “There isn’t a bombastic ‘Hello.’ But I don’t want another song like that,” she also told Vogue. “That song catapulted me in fame to another level that I don’t want to happen again. I’m not saying I’ve got ‘Hello’s in my pocket. I was just conscious that I didn’t want my story on this album to sound like that.”
This choice is clear to hear on “Easy on Me,” where Adele sings even more vulnerably about all the fears and hesitations of new love. As the title suggests, Adele is asking her partner to “go easy on her.” In the song, Adele sings about how she and her partner were “stuck” in their ways and how she tried “hard” to make their relationship work, but at some point, she has to “give up.” “When we are both so deeply stuck in our ways / You can’t deny how hard I’ve tried / I’ve changed who I was to put you both first / But now I givе up,” Adele sings.
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The lyric could be a reference to her marriage to Konecki, whom she divorced in 2019 after two years together. The “Easy on Me” music video also shows Adele moving out of the home seen in her 2018 music video for “Hello,” which could also be reference to how she’s moving from her marriage. A source told Us Weekly at the time that Adele and Konecki—who shares an 8-year-old son named Angelo—ended heir relationship because they “realized the romantic love was no longer there.” “Their relationship evolved and they became more like friends than lovers,” the insider said. The source also noted at the time that Adele and Konecki were both “disappointed” their marriage “didn’t work out.”
In an interview with Elle in 2022, Adele revealed that she wrote some verses for “Easy on Me” in the shower and that the song made her think about how “lost I was when I left my marriage.” “A lot of my friends throughout that rainy period of my life kept saying to me that, ‘You have to go easy on yourself, don’t beat yourself up too much about your decisions,’” she said. “It just really, really stuck with me that, like, I have to be kind to myself.”
Adele also told the magazine about how her “lyrics have probably changed a bit over time in terms of my vocabulary growing, considering that I started out when I was 19.”She continued, “But, you know, they always tell about the same thing: me, and seemingly, my failed relationships. Which is crazy ’cause I actually don’t feel like that, but yeah.”
Adele told British Vogue in 2021 that she wrote 30 and “Easy on Me” to explain her divorce to her son. “I just felt like I wanted to explain to him, through this record, when he’s in his 20s or 30s, who I am and why I voluntarily chose to dismantle his entire life in the pursuit of my own happiness,” she said. She continued, “I feel like this album is self-destruction, then self-reflection and then sort of self-redemption. But I feel ready. I really want people to hear my side of the story this time.”
Adele talked about the moment with her son that motivated her to go into the studio to write the new music. “[Angelo] said to my face, ‘Can you see me?’ And I was like, ‘Uh, yeah.’ And he was like, ‘Cause I can’t see you.’ Well, my whole life fell apart in that moment,” Adele told Vogue. She also opened up about the questions Angelo asked her after her divorce from his father. He said things like, “‘Why don’t you love my dad anymore?’ And I’d be like, ‘I do love your dad. I’m just not in love.’ I can’t make that make sense to a 9-year-old.”
30 by Adele
Read Adele’s “Easy on Me” lyrics via Genius below.
Adele “Easy on Me” Lyrics
[Verse 1]
There ain’t no gold in this river
That I’ve been washing my hands in forever
I know there is hope in these waters
But I can’t bring myself to swim
When I am drowning in the silence
Baby, let me in
[Chorus]
Go easy on me, baby
I was still a child
Didn’t get the chance to
Feel the world around me
I had no time to choose what I chose to do
So go easy on me
[Verse 2]
There ain’t no room for a thing to change
When we are both so deeply stuck in our ways
You can’t deny how hard I’ve tried
I’ve changed who I was to put you both first
But now I givе up
[Chorus]
Go easy on me, baby
I was still a child
Didn’t get thе chance to
Feel the world around me
Had no time to choose what I chose to do
So go easy on me
[Bridge]
I had good intentions
And I had these hopes
But I know it now
It probably hasn’t even shown
[Chorus]
Go easy on me, baby
I was still a child
Didn’t get the chance to
Feel the world around me
Had no time to choose what I chose to do
So go easy on me
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