Adele's New Songs Show A Lot Of Emotional Growth

On Friday morning, the whole world breathed a collective sigh of relief — and then giggled in glee — as Adele finally premiered her long-awaited new album, 25 . One of the LP's major highlights is "Send My Love (To Your New Lover)," an infectious guitar-driven pop ditty reminiscent in some ways of the material heard on Taylor Swift's latest release, 1989. There's a good reason for that: "Send My Love (To Your New Lover)" was co-written and produced by Swift's recent partners in crime, Swedish pop music masterminds Max Martin and Shellback. But the track's über-catchy pop chorus isn't the only reason it stands out: the Adele "Send My Love (To Your New Lover)" lyrics show listeners just how much the now 27-year-old British singer has grown since the release of her last effort, 21, in 2011.

While "Someone Like You" (arguably 21's most memorable single) finds Adele defiantly telling a lover who's spurned her that she'll be just fine without him, "Send My Love (To Your New Lover)" takes a much more mature and compassionate approach to dealing with an ex (comparatively speaking, anyway). In the song's first verse, Adele lays out all of the ways her ex led her on during their relationship: "This was all you, none of it me / You put your hands all over my body and told me / You told me you were ready / For the big one, for the big jump / I'd be your last love, everlasting you and me / That was what you told me."

However, in the pre-chorus, she reveals that she's actually forgiven him: "I'm giving you up / I've forgiven it all / You set me free, oh." In fact, during the chorus, she seems to even give her ex's new relationship her blessing: "Send my love to your new lover / Treat her better / We gotta let go of all our ghosts / We both know we ain't kids no more."

Adele does say that she wishes "nothing but the best" for her ex in "Someone Like You" — but there's an edge to her delivery that makes you question whether she truly means it. In "Send My Love (To Your New Lover)," she's completely letting go of the past. As she gets older, it seems as though Adele no longer wants to allow unresolved relationship drama to weigh so heavily on her heart — and who can blame her? It may occasionally inspire a really, really, exceedingly brilliant song (read: "Someone Like You"), but the pain it causes (probably) isn't worth it.

25 is available on iTunes now.

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