Song of the Week breaks down and talks about the song we just can’t get out of our head each week. Find these songs and more on our Spotify Top Songs playlist. For our favorite new songs from emerging artists, check out our Spotify New Sounds playlist. This week, Adele keeps us on our toes with the refreshing “Oh My God” from her new album 30.
Adele is reliable. She knows how to unlock feelings authentically, often against the backdrop of a piano or forlorn strings. The promise of Sad Girl Autumn was realized when she dropped “Easy On Me” in October. There were certain expectations around 30, which is here in full today, November 19th, and Adele put them to rest with an album that is, in many places, surprising and sonically diverse.
“I Drink Wine,” “Hold On,” and “To Be Loved” are all absolutely killer, and they also fall more in line with traditional Adele fare. But then there’s “Oh My God,” which incorporates more R&B sounds and replaces outright sadness with internal conflict. It’s no secret that Adele could sing anything and make it sound exceptional, but the whistles and bass folded into the production on “Oh My God” take her vocals to a different place.
Adele has been in our collective consciousness for so long that it’s easy to forget that she’s still quite young. (30! It’s in the name!) A large majority of her youth, particularly her 20s, was dedicated to her career, though. She married her now ex-husband shortly after the release of 21. The conflict expressed in “Oh My God” focuses on her desire to have some fun for once, something it seems she never had the chance to do.
“I know that it’s wrong/ But I want to have fun,” she aches on the pre-chorus. “This is trouble, but it feels right/ Teetering on the edge of Heaven and Hell.” If Adele wants to let loose for once, it’s time she does so.
— Mary Siroky
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