Adele’s latest single, “Hello,” is everything you’d expect it to be — a majestic, soaring ballad looking back on a failed relationship. It very well might have been on her last album, “21” as its themes of heartbreak and nostalgia transcend into this five-year anticipated single.
“Hello” is an enormous ballad, with Adele’s voice spilling beautifully across the powerful piano chords, orchestral strings, bass drums and backing vocals. The sensation of being adrift in an ocean is precisely what “Hello” captures, as the listener is compelled to drift about as the British singer’s vocals take over and empower them. It’s an overwhelming, vividly emotional piece that stirs up a storm within, striking a perfect balance between intimacy and the power of the churning sea.
There’s nothing new in “Hello.” It’s not a departure from the lovelorn and heartbreak which graced Adele’s previous album, but rather, a greater consolidation of the passion and soul on which Adele rose to stardom in the first place. “Hello” is a promise of the rawness and honesty that Adele has shown us in the past, a cathartic and familiar welcoming for the rest of her upcoming album “25,” due to be released Nov. 20.