Adele’s “Easy On Me” Lyrics Meaning

Based on the terse snippet of this song that became public on 9 October 2021, our first postulation would be that the vocalist is most logically addressing a loved one. Moreover, the title is derived from her instructing them to ‘go easy on her’. 

You can view the lyrics, alternate interprations and sheet music for Adele's Easy On Me at Lyrics.org.

And apparently the reason she’s doing so is because they are more experienced than she is. That is not to say that Adele is a novice in the game of life. Rather, she has apparently been through enough to develop somewhat of a pessimistic, fearful outlook of the world around her. And that has accordingly turned the vocalist into some sort of an introvert, specifically from the romantic perspective, it would seem.

And, that’s all we really have to work with at the moment. But “Easy on Me” reads as if it is shaping up to be quite an interesting song, one that may be based on the changes going on Adele’s personal life as of late.

A Detailed Analysis of “Easy of Me”

Although there is no specifically romantic language found in this song, the implication, at least initially, would be that Adele is addressing a romantic interest. It has also been acceptably put forth that the said individual would be Simon Konecki. This is the man the songstress had been married to from circa early-2017 to early-2021, meaning that they got divorced less than a year before this track came out. 

And again, all lyrics considered that is a reasonable postulation. But perhaps the clearest clue in that regard really comes in the second verse, when the vocalist proclaims to the addressee that she “put you both first”. This is the only part of the song where the singer is overtly directing her comments towards two individuals instead of one. 

Angelo James

As understood, that second party would actually be Angelo James, as in Adele and Simon’s son. Also that statement, as fully read (“I changed who I was to put you both first”) insinuates that the vocalist is not truly happy in her current circumstances. And that is in fact the sentiment that more or less lies at the heart of this song.

“Go easy on me, baby, I was still a child”

Indeed the titular expression is of course being levied towards the addressee. And most simply explained within the context of all that has been put forth above, it indicates that the vocalist got into this relationship when she wasn’t mature or experienced enough to know what she was truly getting into. 

So as presented in the first verse, she has come to realize that whatever fantasies she may have had for this romance simply are not coming to pass. And the second verse cites irreconcilable differences between she and the addressee as the reason why things didn’t work out. 

But that noted, it can be said that Adele is playing the victim card also. That is to say that she presents herself as someone who ventured into this scenario all naïve and innocent, with things going awry really being no fault of her own.

Lyrics of Adele's "Easy on Me"

Wait a minute! The Addressee might be the Narrator’s Son!

Another theory, going a bit out on a limb, is that in the chorus Adele is actually addressing her son. Well, we may not be going that far out on a limb, considering that some analysts have come to this conclusion also. This is something we were not able to ascertain in our earlier analysis of “Easy of Me”. And this was because at the time we were analyzing the song based on a snippet. But now, it becomes clearer that Adele is actually asking for patience and understanding from her son. 

And it is he who she is most pointedly explaining that she didn’t really know what becoming a mother/wife entailed and that the choice wasn’t really her own. And as insinuated in the bridge, there is a primary reason she’s pouring her heart like this is. The reason would be because Adele, most simply put, doesn’t want him growing up under the impression that she doesn’t give AF concerning this whole less-than-ideal arrangement, i.e. divorce with his father.

In Conclusion

So this is a pretty creative take on the well-worn topic of marital discontent. It can be said that there are two addressees or maybe even only one. And if it is the latter, that individual would actually be the child of the vocalist and her ex, not the ex himself.

Indeed listening to the song with that theory in mind actually, all lyrics considered, makes it easier to understand. And what Adele is most basically doing is asking the child to forgive her – it would seem – for shunning the housewife role, or something like that. Indeed he personally bore witness to ‘how hard she tried’ to make things work, but work they did not. 

So she doesn’t want him growing up believing that she just threw in the towel or gave up without resistance. Instead, when harping on this reality, Adele desires Angelo to be both sympathetic and empathetic of what she actually went through.

Adele


Adele is a songstress we have covered before, most simply because it would be impossible to have a music platform without showing her some love. And that’s due to the fact that, despite only dropping three studio albums to date, Adele has already established herself as one of the best-selling musicians in industry history.

The pinnacle of Adele’s success thus far was the dropping her second LP, 21, in 2011 – an album that has sold over 30,000,000 copies worldwide and has achieved diamond+ certification in the US, Canada, Oceania and of course the singer’s homeland of the UK. But that said, Adele is also known as being somewhat of a recluse or, based on her own explanation, someone who really isn’t into the celebrity game outside of making music. 

And even beyond that, she’s also known to enjoy some hard chillin’ and being the type of musician who doesn’t mind taking breaks, even if doing so pisses her fandom off. Also notable in terms of Adele’s life over the past few years is the fact that she apparently married her baby daddy, Simon Konecki, somewhere around 2016-2017. That was the era in which her last album, 25 (2015), came out. 

However despite the two of them having been together for about a decade, the marriage fell apart in 2019. By early 2021, they had been officially divorced.

“Easy on Me”

“Easy on Me” – which Sony Music Entertainment, XL Records and Columbia Records released on 15 October 2021 – is actually be Adele’s first single since 2016’s “Water Under the Bridge”. And to note, the songstress herself is the sole credited writer of this piece.

All of Adele’s studio albums thus far – 2008’s 19, 2011’s 21 and 2015’s 25 – have been named after numbers. And what they reflect are ages in the life of the singer. So “Easy on Me” is actually the lead single from an album which itself is entitled 30. The number 30 reflects the vocalist’s mindframe at this stage in her life. But for the record, Adele is actually 33 years old as of the release of this track.

Adele first announced the forthcoming of this song, via Twitter, on 5 October 2021. However, she seemingly went about teasing the eventual release of 30 way back in mid-2019.

The aforementioned Angelo James, the son of Adele and Simon Konecki, was born in late-2012. That means he is nearing 10 years old as of the dropping of this track.

Adele wrote this song alongside perennial hitmaker Greg Kurstin. Greg also holds the production credits for “Easy on Me”.

The labels behind this track are Columbia Records and Melted Stone.

Upon release, “Easy on Me” promptly proceeded to set a new record as the song to achieve the most streams on Spotify in a single day. The previous record holder was K-pop boy band BTS via their single “Butter“, which came out earlier in 2021. That song garnered a little over 11,000,000 streams within 24 hours. Meanwhile Adele smashed that record, with “Easy on Me” recording 24,000,000 streams within that same timeframe.

Easy On Me

FYI

Concerning Adele’s aforenoted love life, interesting to note is that in the aftermath of divorcing Simon Konecki she began dating Rich Paul. Paul is a name that readers who are also NBA fans are only likely to be familiar with, since his claim to fame is being LeBron James’s agent.  And since being put on by LeBron, Paul has gone about establishing himself as pretty much the most influential sports agent in American basketball.

Performance on the Charts

“Easy on Me” claimed a #1 spot in many countries.

United Kingdom#1
United States of America#1
Australia#1
Austria#1
Belgium#1
Brazil#1
Canada#1
Croatia#1
Czech Republic#1
Denmark#1
Germany#1
Greece#1
Iceland#1
Ireland#1
Israel#1
Italy#1
Lithuania#1
Malaysia#1
Netherlands#1
New Zealand#1
Norway#1
Singapore#1
Slovakia#1
South Africa#1
Sweden#1
Switzerland#1

Apart from being a Billboard #1 Hit, it was also in the Top-10 of these countries:

Countries:Position:
Bolivia#7
Chile#10
Costa Rica#8
El Salvador#7
Finland#2
France#2
Hungary#3
India#9
Indonesia#5
Latvia#4
Mexico#2
Philippines#6
Portugal#2
Slovakia#2

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may also like...