(CNN) — The moment Adele fans have been waiting for has finally arrived — the singer has released her first music in six years, dropping the single “Easy On Me” on Friday.
The song, the first from a hotly anticipated album due in November, begins to do exactly what the singer promised: to address the “inner turmoil” coming from a series of big life changes, including her divorce from Simon Konecki, with whom she shares a son.
The lyrics implore her listener to “go easy on me.”
“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,” she sings.
In an interview in the November issue of Vogue magazine, the 33-year-old singer said she recorded the song — like a lot of the album — for her son.
“I just felt like I wanted to explain to him, through this record, when he’s in his twenties or thirties, who I am and why I voluntarily chose to dismantle his entire life in the pursuit of my own happiness,” she said.
“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,” she added.
Adele filed for divorce from charity CEO Konecki in 2019. She and Konecki, who lives across the street from her in Los Angeles, share 9-year-old son Angelo.
“I was just going through the motions and I wasn’t happy,” Adele explained of their marriage to Vogue. “Neither of us did anything wrong. Neither of us hurt each other or anything like that. It was just: I want my son to see me really love, and be loved. It’s really important to me.”
She added, “I’ve been on my journey to find my true happiness ever since.”
Alicia Silverstone, Lil Nas X and Drake were among the many fans who reacted to the song’s release, with Silverstone sharing a video of herself stocking up on wine and liquor ahead of listening to the track. Meanwhile, Lil Nas X said the song was “so good,” adding: “I feel like I’m 15 again.”
“Easy On Me” has also had a positive reception from music critics.
“Her voice, as powerful as ever, sounds initially wounded, then soars. Even if you find The Stuff That Adele Does miserable, you’d have your work cut out arguing that her vocal during the final bridge is anything other than fantastic,” the Guardian wrote.
Meanwhile, Rolling Stone said the singer “reduces the world to tears” with her newest release.
And Billboard mused that despite its similarities to Adele’s previous hits, the song is “not more of the same.”
“Instead of offering more tear duct-ravaging balladry focused on long-gone exes or scorned romances, ‘Easy On Me’ presents a different type of devastation: a plea for understanding, following a breakup that has caused too much collateral damage,” Billboard wrote.
The singer took to social media Wednesday to tell fans that the new album, “30,” will be out on November 19.
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