Singer Adele says upcoming album '30' is 'a rollercoaster of emotion'

Adele said the new album explains her life changes, but is ultimately a letter to her now nine-year-old son. Photo: Adele/Instagram

Adele, the 15-time Grammy winner with over 120 million records sold globally, had her first sit-down interview in five years with Vogue, to discuss her fourth studio album, 30, her divorce and inevitable return to the spotlight.

The star, who gave her last one-on-one interview in 2016, said, "I have to sort of gear myself up to be famous again, which, famously, I don't really like being."

In the past five years, the Hello star has been raising her son Angelo and gotten married and divorced to her now ex-husband, Simon Konecki. Adele said the new album explains her life changes, but is ultimately a letter to her now nine-year-old son.

"My son has had a lot of questions. Really good questions, really innocent questions, that I just don't have an answer for... (like) why can't you still live together?... 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. It made him really unhappy sometimes. And that's a real wound for me that I don't know if I'll ever be able to heal."

But the article describes her as being "done with lambasting her exes in her lyrics", quoting the singer as saying, "I have to really address myself now."

The star explained what she hopes for in 30, comparing it to her two previous blockbusters: "I was drunk as a fart on 21; I really don't remember much, I just remember being really sad. On 25, I was obviously sober as anything, because I was a new mum. That one, I was sort of more in tune with what I thought people might want or not want. With this one, I made the very conscious decision to be like, for the first time in my life, actually, 'What do I want?'"

What she wanted, in part, was to resume working with Greg Kurstin, who paired famously well with her on 25, and Max Martin, Inflo (known for his work with Sault) and Swedish composer and producer Ludwig Goransson, who won an Academy Award for his Black Panther score and has worked closely with Childish Gambino. There are no featured guests on the record.

No song titles from the forthcoming album are revealed in the interview, although the writer, who heard four of the tracks, describes the record's closing number as "a seven-minute opus" that is "a string-swirling, Garland-invoking, jazzy, campy, swooning delight, packed with world-weary end-of-the-show reflection, and featuring a vocal for the ages".

Ultimately, Adele says 30 contains a rollercoaster of emotion: "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."

Easy On Me, the first single from 30, is dropping on Oct 15. – Reuters