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alietohelpyouseethetruth · 3 years

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ok there's a good chance ive had too much gin but I think we need to talk about Adele.

Adele has always been a phenomenally talented singer and songwriter, so it is no suprise at all to me that she knocked it out of the park with her latest single "Easy on Me", ok let's just break this down for a minute and check out her subtle genius for a second here's verse one-

There ain't no gold in this river

That I've been washin' 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 this silence

Baby, let me in

Adele is a champion when it comes to holding yourself to a higher standard but still being raw and honest. She is classy, she doesn't call out people in songs blatantly and usually speaks in metaphors and innuendos, but she also is vulnerable and honest, she doesn't use those metaphors to hide from her feelings and the reality, she uses them to explain it. She isn't going to outright say what she's gone through, but she's going to make sure you know exactly how she feels.

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

God I don't know where to start with this chorus. I think she leads with the universal, this entreaty to go easy, to show mercy, to cut some slack, because we all relate to needing that. Then she brings it home. She explains that she herself feels like she missed out on something, something she really needed, and that it affected her. In many situations people are not empathetic because they do not understand the things we've gone though and how they relate to the way we react to things in the present. She is bringing this to our attention, there are things about her that never finished developing, that she didn't get to finish experiencing before it was already too late.

There ain't no room for things to change

When we are both so deeply stuck in our ways

You can't deny how hard I have tried

I changed who I was to put you both first

But now I give up

There's an intense contrast that we don't immediately see but we immediately feel between the first chorus and the second verse. She goes from portraying herself as a child, or youth, who never got to finish growing up, who never finished being molded, to someone stuck in their ways. From someone vulnerable and naive to someone stubborn, who can't conquer their own patterns, even for something they value and want, and the way that affects a relationship she fought hard to save but ultimately lost. She describes in few words being in a pattern, sacrificing yourself for the ones you love and the way you're supposed to be, and the intensity that comes when that breaks and you are forced to move on. She describes how the love a mother has bleeds into the love a wife would have, how the situation builds itself, and how it deteriorates, in one very simple verse.

Go easy on mе, baby

I was still a child

Didn't get the chance to

Feel thе world around me

Had no time to choose what I chose to do

So go easy on me

It's no secret i have favorite lines in songs and by far my favorite line in this one is "Had no time to choose what I chose to do." There is power in that for me. Haven't we all felt in our lives that we were forced to make a decision we were not ready to make? This breeds a type of bitterness when it doesn't work out for the best, because how could we have ever known better? It's not fair that we had to learn the hard way, it's not fair that we were put in a position we weren't ready for- "I didn't know what I was doing," "I wasn't ready," "Cut me some slack," "Go easy on me!"

This song was written by a woman who was leaving her husband while looking at her child. A woman who couldn't take it anymore, who had to make a change, looking at her husband disappointed in her actions and the way it played out, looking at her child that will feel betrayed by her leaving his father, and begging, "Please, go easy on me. Understand what I was going through. I wasn't ready. I did my best."

I had good intentions

And the highest hopes

But I know right now

It probably doesn't even show

"I know what this looks like." I can just picture when I hear this song her saying to her husband, a man she loves and committed to, "Look, I tried. I wanted this to work. I wanted to be happy. I know it doesn't look like it, but I loved you. I didn't know what i was doing. Go easy on me."

I love Adele for many reasons and one is the accountability she has in her songs. Many singers sing from the perspective of their pain and their own experience, but Adele has a habit of showing us both sides of the story, of explaining how hard she tried but also the things she did wrong. She reaches a level of honesty that not only conveys a specific kind of talent but also a strength of character and a true ability to see the solid values a person has. Joni Mitchell can write like that, Brandi Carlile can write like that, Adele can write like that. It's a special kind of honesty in songwriting that endears us and creates a bond between the artist and the listener, because they are saying things we understand but might never have the courage to say in our own lives. There is a sense of gratitude that they were willing to own and express the feelings for us, giving us the catharsis of expressing them without the pain of owning them ourselves.

Go easy on me, baby

I was still a child

I 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

Adele's albums are named after her age when she released/ wrote them, which is super clever and cool, and I am so excited for 30. This new stage of her life, these new experiences and pain, the involuntary growth I know she has had to go through is going to make for phenomenal songwriting. And really that's the beauty of the craft, taking something awful, painful and uncomfortable and turning it into something beautiful. Taking the bad parts of the experience and expressing and projecting them, using them to create. It gives the writer a sense of control, because instead of being bogged down or discouraged by these experiences, they enjoy them, they celebrate them by turning them into music. And music is something people love. You took a bad experience, a painful feeling, and an impossible situation and turned it into something people can love.

It's Adele's world we're just living in it and I wouldn't have it any other way.

#adele #easy on me #heartbreak #songwriting #music #lyrics #gin induced introspection #just being deeply impressed overall by adeles talent #I didnt even get into how good of a singer she is #divorce #spotify #model #simon koneki #2021 is full of great albums #Spotify

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