Adele’s 21, released in 2011, was an album focusing on how she powered through her terrible heartache. But since then she has gotten married to Simon Konecki, and given birth to  her son Angelo. So now, in 25, the fact that she’s settled down, along with her heartache, means that she’s had to change the style of her songs a little. She’s turned to remembering her past remorse during her younger days. During these songs she sounds more mature and distant from her last album 21.

Upsetting many of her fans who like to stream music for free, Adele decided to not allow songs from the long awaited album, 25, to be streamed on websites like Spotify and Pandora. Besides her live performances, or the one music video that she has for “Hello,” the only way to hear her tracks is to buy them on CD or at itunes.com.

“I don’t think this album is as good as 21,” Freshman Jonathan Pomerantz said.

“She sounds different, she doesn’t want to give up her old style but she still wants to evolve her sound to make it better,” freshman Ethan Asis said.

“This is an all around great album, I’ll give it a ten out of ten,” freshman Annie Bottern said.

“This is definitely a step up from her last album,” freshman Janie Brunell said.

“She’s evolved from just having an instrumental of piano to a much more poppy sound,” Asis said.

“A lot of her songs are very similar to the ones in 21, but she also has songs with totally different themes and styles,” freshman Jennie Verhey said.

“I liked her album 21 better,” senior Maren Findlay said.

“She sounds like she’s trying to make her image grow up, from a woman full of heartache to a woman who has grown more distant from it,” Asis said.

“Adele has a totally new sound, you could even dance to some of her songs at parties,” junior Lutalo Jones said.

“This whole album sounds like her real voice and not auto-tuned, except ‘Hello’,” Asis said.

“She’s got great eyebrows in that cover art,” Findlay said.

Hello:

In this pop ballad, Adele greets you with a rush of emotion as she sings about a sour relationship she once had. She recalls her mistakes and reaches out to her past lover, apologizing for the end of their long lost relationship.

“It’s a really good song to reflect on past relationships even though I don’t have any past relationships,” freshman Max Moen said.

“I really like the lyrics to this song: ‘Hello, it’s me, I was wondering…’” junior Matt Suzuki said.

“Hello is my favorite song ever, It makes me want to belt the song out with Adele… but I’m a terrible singer,” freshman Betsy Romans said.

“When it comes onto the car radio I get pumped,” freshman Tessah Green said.

“It makes me want to whip,” freshman Adam Zukowski said.

“This song makes me feel happy whenever I listen to it,” freshman Kieran Singh said.

“It’s like an emotional roller-coaster,” freshman Phillip Bragg said.

“This song’s way too long,” sophomore Jack Hermann said.

“It makes me wonder how many more breakup songs she’s going to write,” freshman Riley Teitel said.

“It’s sounds like poppy, danceable, feel good music,” Romans said.

“This song sounds very auto-tuned,” Asis said.

“It’s overplayed, but It has good lyrics and makes me feel uplifted,” Teitel said.

“I think this song’s kind of annoying,” freshman Kenzie Geise said.

“How many breakups has this woman had?” Teitel asked.

Send My Love (To Your New Lover): In this dance pop song with a middle eastern influence, Adele sings about the ending of a bad relationship and how she was glad that it ended. Sassily she tells her old lover to “send my love to your new lover,” wishing the clueless new girl some luck.

“It makes me want to jump up and dance,” Pomerantz said.

“It’s a much different rhythm from her usual songs, it’s upbeat,” sophomore Terry Cheney said.

“It’s more acoustic than her usual songs,” Green said.

“It’s different from her other material, but it still sounds like her,” Romans said.

“She keeps having voice cracks,” freshman Parsa Farbakhsh said.

“It’s a new style for Adele, I feel the Indian vibes,” Asis said.

“It’s not emotional like her other songs,” Romans said.

“I sounds different from her other songs, it’s more upbeat and happy,” sophomore Val Hart said.

“It’s very upbeat and it seems too poppy for Adele, kind of sounds like she’s screeching,” Moen said.

I Miss You: In this eerie track, sounds of ghosts and echoing drums fill the background as Adele sings a creepy ballad about how she misses a past lover. The instrumental reflects that the passion of their relationship was definitely something special.

“It sounds like it’s a haunted house,” Green said.

“I like the chorus a lot, it’s unique from a lot of the songs I hear on the radio,” Bottern said.

“It sounds like ghosts are screaming,” Green said.

“I like the loud drums that echo in the background,” Pomerantz said.

“The whole song is just creepy,” Hart said.

“She takes way too long to start singing,” Romans said.

“It reminds me of Halloween,” Geise said.

“Other choruses from this album are better,” Green said.

“It sounds like some tribal cult song,” Romans said.

“It has a long intro, and that’s not something I like very much,” Bottern said.

“It’s kind of depressing, especially when the piano comes in,” Romans said.

“It’s a pretty creepy song, it sounds like a cult song,” Singh said.

“It makes me feel sad and alone,” freshman Jonah Spencer said.

“I don’t like this one as much, it’s kind of boring,” Romans said.

When We Were Young:

In this calm but poppy piano ballad, Adele picks up with a past lover and tells him that their relationship should never have ended, telling him how much she loved him and that she would love to give another go at it.

“The verses are very calming,” Green said.

“It makes me get emotional and think about the high school relationship that I don’t have,” Geise said.

“I could fall asleep to it,” Herman said.

“It’s a very calm, slow paced song,” Farbakhsh said.

“I like this one, but it’s sad, it makes me want to cry,” Bottern said.

“It seems like an Adele song that could have been in 21,” Moen said.

“This song feels realistic, unlike a lot of songs that I hear about love,” Green said.

“The combination of notes in the melody sounds a little weird to me,” Moen said.

Remedy: Adele sings soulfully over rich piano chords in this uplifting track. She sings to her lover that she will be his “Remedy” and bring him back from any of his life troubles.

“I could listen to it while studying for a test to make me feel better,” Geise said.

“I like the way she sings it, her voice just makes all the songs she sings good,” Green said.

“Her voice is so soothing,” Brunell said.

“I like the piano in this song, it sounds really pretty,” sophomore Dina Moradian said.

“It makes me feel uplifted,” Asis said.

“I like her songs a lot better that other people’s because they actually have good meanings,” freshman Emily Schlinger said.

Water Under the Bridge:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIgKHiFfB0k

In this danceable Brit-pop song, Adele tells her lover that she wants to keep their relationship going, telling him that their relationship is more than just something simple. But if that he’s going to let her go to let her down gently.

“This song’s hip!” Green said.

“I really like the rhythm of it,” Spencer said.

“The background choir really adds to the song,” Spencer said.

“It seems like a song from the Adele I know and love,” Moen said.

“It makes me feel sad for what she has gone through in her life,” Spencer said.

“It makes me feel powerful,” Green said.

“It makes me want to cry,” Farbakhsh said. “I can whip to this.”

“I want to sing along,” Bottern said.

“This song makes me want to get up and dance,” Geise said.

River lea: In this powerful pop ballad, Adele blames how she is now based on what happened to her in her childhood, when she lived in northern London, by the river lea.

“This song feels very soulful,” Green said.

“I really like her smooth vocals in this song,” Geise said.

“You can feel that the beat is present,” Asis said.

“The background is sort of distracting,” Green said.

“Why does she keep blaming everything on the River Lea?” Green asked.

“What even is the River Lea?” Asis asked.

“The idea of the song is that, especially since I’ve become a parent, let alone writing this record, I’m dealing with myself for the first time. And I have a lot of bad habits. And rather than admitting that I have bad traits in my actual character, I blame it on where I’m from,” Adele answers.

Love in the dark: In this tear jerking track, backed up by violins and piano, Adele sings about a past lover who held secrets from her, and how when she found out, she told him that their relationship had already been over for a while. She told him that she couldn’t love him while she was in the dark.

“This is a dark and depressing song, it makes me think about my life,” Farbakhsh said.

“I really like the instrumental,” Green said.

“I want to just belt out the chorus,” Geise said.

“It’s a very calming, peaceful song,” Spencer said.

“The chorus sounds sort of like gospel music,” Bottern said.

“I’m imagining dramatic ballerinas in my mind,” Green said.

“This relationship sounds very troubled,” Pomerantz said.

“The verses are sort of annoying,” Green said.

“I feel sad for Adele and what she has gone through,” Green said.

Million Years Ago:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYllPvAeXUU

In this folk infused ballad, Adele sings about the remorse she feels in some parts of her past. She says how her life is flashing by so fast, how she can’t keep up, and how she can’t stop it.

“This song sounds very calm,” Green said.

“This song is so sad, she is all alone,” Geise said.

“I don’t like the humming in the background, it sounds sort of Egyptian,” Green said.

“She has such a good big voice and she should use it more instead of just talk-singing in the verses,” Pomerantz said.

“It makes me sad, she says her life is just flashing by, and this is true with me because school’s going by so fast and I can’t keep up with everything,” freshman Emily Schilger said.

All I Ask:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGlSENDfZdE

In this emotional ballad the piano builds up along with Adele’s dramatic singing as she begs her lover to act like he loves her “more than just a friend.” Adele’s lover doesn’t feel the same about her as the way she feels about him, this was their relationship’s demise.

“This song sounds really soulful, it touches my heart,” freshman Tom Jaeger said.

“It’s not my favorite song from the album,” Green said. “This song makes her sound clingy.”

“It makes me feel very emotional,” Jaeger said.

“She sort of sounds like she’s whining,” Geise said.

“I feel very peaceful while I’m listening to this,” Jaeger said.

“Why does Adele always have to make such sad songs?” Schlinger asked.

Sweetest Devotion: Over a creative instrumental Adele sings about the unique feelings she felt when she was in a relationship with a certain someone, and how she yearns to feel that way again.

“It has a very interesting Instrumental,” Green said.

“The piano sounds so relaxing,” freshman Adam Zukowski said.

“It’s a pretty weird song,” freshman Tristan Hitchen-Brookens said.

“It makes me feel relaxed, like I’m dreaming,” Green said.

“I don’t want to waste my time listening to this,” Hitchens-Brookens said.