Easy On Me

Album

30

Label

Columbia Records

Genre

Dance-pop

Composer(s)

Adele Adkins;Greg Kurstin

Entered Chart

Oct 23, 2021

Peak Date

Oct 30, 2021

Released

15 October 2021

Recorded

Unknown

Catalog #

Columbia Records

B-Side

n/a

Adele's first solo release in five years, "Easy On Me" is a piano-led ballad written in the wake of her split from husband Simon Konecki. The song is a plea for understanding addressed to Simon, their son Angelo Adkins, and the world at large. Explaining the title phrase, Adele told Vogue: "It's not like anyone's having a go at me, but it's like, I left the marriage. Be kind to me as well." Adele tells Angelo that she was "just a child" when she married his father and asks his forgiveness for breaking up the family. Her message to Konecki is that she tried hard to make their marriage work, but they were both deeply stuck in their ways. She tried to put him and their son before herself, but eventually gave up and put herself first. I had no time to choose what I chose to do So go easy on me Adele wrote the song for her 30 album in the year of her separation. It was the first tune Adele penned for the record; she wrote nothing else for six months after because she thought she'd said it all in "Easy On Me." The album title refers to Adele's age when she left Simon Konecki - she was 33 when the song was released in 2021. Adele told Vogue she recorded 30 to help Angelo understand why she and his father got divorced. "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 explained. "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." When Adele selected the lead single for her previous album, 25, there was only one choice: "Hello." Speaking with BBC Radio 2's Zoe Ball, Adele said there were three options for the first single from 30. "In the end, we went with 'Easy On Me' because it's got this soaring chorus which, you know, everyone's going to hear now. It just felt like a 'me' song," she said. "And after being away for so long, it felt like that was probably the biggest part of my songs that people were waiting for." Adele wrote the song with its producer, Greg Kurstin. The American producer collaborated with the English singer on three of her previous album's tracks: "Hello," "Water Under the Bridge," and "Million Years Ago." Kurstin played the bass guitar, piano, and drum machine. Beck's composer father, David Campbell (Rush, Evanescence, Michael Jackson, Muse), arranged and conducted the strings. Xavier Dolan (Mommy, It's Only The End Of The World) directed the song's music video. The Canadian filmmaker shot it at the Chemin Jordan and the Domaine Dumont Chapelle Ste-Agnès in Sutton in southwestern Quebec on September 15-16, 2021. The "Easy On Me" video begins in the same house where the "Hello" video takes place - Dolan worked on that one as well. The song debuted at #1 on the UK singles chart, Adele's third visit to the UK summit following "Someone Like You" and "Hello." "Easy On Me" racked up 24 million streams in the UK in its first week, topping Ariana Grande's record of 16.9 million set in January 2019 with "7 Rings." The single leapt to #1 in its second week on the Hot 100, becoming Adele's fifth leader. Her previous four chart-toppers were "Rolling In The Deep, "Someone Like You," "Set Fire to the Rain," and "Hello." Adele recorded a separate version featuring country singer-songwriter Chris Stapleton for the deluxe 30 album, available at Target. The song is the British star's first official duet on her records, though she previously recorded a duet with Daniel Merriweather for his 2009 album Love & War. This is not the first time the two artists' paths have crossed. Adele previously recorded Stapleton's song, "If It Hadn't Been For Love," as a bonus track on some editions of her 21 album. The "Easy On Me" duet version landed at Country radio on November 19, 2021. Adele previously dipped her toes into country waters when she performed Lady A's "Need You Now," alongside Darius Rucker, at the 2010 CMT Artists of the Year Ceremony. Their cover is on the deluxe edition bonus disc for 21. With UK first-week chart sales totaling 261,000, 30 marked the biggest opening for an album since Ed Sheeran's Divide. The ginger-haired superstar racked up 672,000 copies in the UK during Divide's first seven days in 2017. Adele won Artist of the Year, Song of the Year with "Easy On Me," and Album of the Year with 30 at the 2022 Brit Awards. The singer also delivered a performance of "I Drink Wine" at the ceremony. It marked her third Album of the Year win at the Brits, following those for 21 in 2012 and 25 in 2016. Adele felt utterly lost after she left her marriage to Simon Konecki. "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' and stuff like that, and, you know, 'You've just got to give it time,'" she recalled in a video interview with Elle. "It just really, really stuck with me that, like, I have to be kind to myself." "Easy On Me" earned over 19.7 million streams in its first 24 hours on Spotify globally, becoming the biggest opening day for a song in the platform's history. More songs from Adele

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

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

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

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

I had good intentions
And the highest hopes
But I know right now
It probably doesn't even show

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