It’s rare to find an artist who can captivate the world with one brief, raw greeting, but that’s exactly what Adele did when she released “Hello” back in October.

I spent a week with the song on repeat, crying like a tween in the bathroom at a school dance.

And I wasn’t the only one. The day the song hit airwaves, celebrities tweeted their dramatic reactions to the singer’s comeback anthem and first single in three years.

Luckily for us emotionally unstable, heartbreak junkies, Adele’s new album, 25 drops today, and insiders are predicting that this one album could single-handedly save the music industry.

Based on sales from her first single and the popularity of her just-released second single, “When We Were Young,” they expect 25 to sell between 1.3 and 1.8 million copies in its first week. For perspective, Taylor Swift’s hugely succesful 1989, which was released last year, fell just shy of the 1.3 million mark.

I’m not sure any one album can save music. (Seriously, have you listened to the radio lately?) But if we’re going to rely on one person to make the kind of music that wakes people up, Adele is certainly the gal to do it. And here’s why:

Adele gets it.

The part of our heart that begins to develop the minute we first fall in love.

The piece of our soul that feels everything as if it were happening in 3D.

The place in our mind that dissects every declaration of acceptance and heartbreak.

She just gets it.

Then she adds sweeping piano chords and searing violins and opens her mouth—and we all get it.

I crave music that punches me in the gut. Don’t get me wrong, I love mindless, feel-good tunes that make me want to dance it out. But I also want to hear a voice that isn’t afraid to break in pain or beg for forgiveness. I want to listen to an artist who says all the messy, hopeful love-drunk stuff I scribble in my journal.

So don’t judge me when I tell you that I’ll be spending the weekend locked in my bedroom with a box of tissues and 11 new songs that have the potential to crack us all open—from a woman who is certified platinum in making us feel all the feelings.

“To the general public, it’s not about your body of work. In most cases, it’s about the song that reminds them of something in their lives. They take you into their heart.”

~ Adele

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Hello:

When We Were Young (Live at The Church Studios):

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Relephant Read:

“Korean girl impressively covering Adele “Hello.” (video)

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Author: Nicole Cameron

Editor: Toby Israel

Image: Youtube screenshot

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