While revisiting this today I realized how little impact and legacy most of the songs have culturally or on a personal level. It's nearly 5 years old now and has significantly less of a cultural footprint than 21 and 25. 19 is certainly a stronger album too. The streams outside of Easy on Me are weak in her body of work.

I'm a huge Adele fan and defended 30 upon release but realize I was pretending it was better than my heart believed. Now I get no joy out of listening to most of these dull and unmemorable melodies, lack of cohesive vision, tedious voice memos for children, and harsh bellowing.

How has it aged for you?

It's aging well, just mostly ignored at this point in time. It would be amazing if the album had a Tiktok-fueled resurgence because some of the songs deserve a revisit.

Edited May 14May 14 by Archetype

it's her best album but not as streaming friendly/ replayable.

she said arts not charts and still got a multiplatinum smash era and the #1 IFPI album of 2021 in her flop era so

This album is totally forgotten EXCEPT for the lead, Easy On Me, which is quietly becoming one of her signature songs. It's her 2nd most streamed song on Spotify (2.4B), only preceded by Someone Like You (2.6B). It's still consistently in her Top 5 most daily streamed songs. Today it was #4 at 814K, very close to her #1 - Set Fire to the Rain at 969K.

Compare that to the similar Hello, which is down to 381K daily streams and is being outplayed daily by THREE other songs on 25. EOM also outstreamed Hello quite a while ago (1.8B) and is proving it has more legs long-term.

That album was always just the "Easy On Me" era let's be real.

21 was amazing and a cultural reset, but that was quite honestly her entire career to be frank.

• 25 sold like 80% of its total units in 2 months because of the direct hype of being a follow-up to 21

• 19 sold majority of its units and peaked after 21 was released.

  So essentially all her first 3 albums sales were directly fueled from 21 era.

19, 21, and 25 combined numbers show why 21 was undeniably the biggest female era ever though on the flip side. That's 100 million+ album units essentially due to 1 album.

It's entirely forgotten except for maybe Easy on Me.

ADELE is over.

Easy On Me is the only smash from that entire era, but the album is pretty terrible.

Definitely forgettable. Haven't even heard anyone mention it in years

Well, it lost AOTY so people can't even fake stan it to drag Beyoncé like they do with 25, that's what happened

I'm not really into Adele stuff but I feel like the impact of this album lasted only a couple of months and all the attention was around Easy on Me (and I Drink Wine at the BRITs). The album these days it's clearly not a flop but it really feels forgotten considering her discography is based in only 4 albums.

I feel like Adele Live should have been a Global Tour so the 30 Era could have been a little bit more "memorable".

Edited May 14May 14 by gwen stacy

Adele has done a poor job of translating her success to anyone younger than milennials. Is it a coincidence her albums don't have lasting impact as soon as Gen Z became the most influential cultural zeitgeist over milennials? Nope!

She only has herself to blame because of her very long breaks, boring music videos, and seemingly total disinterest in "playing the game". While I think her decline was majority inevitable due to the natural way of things in music, and she was never going to keep up her 2010s popularity by a wide margin, I do think she could've made some different choices so that 30 was not completely forgotten and there was a little bit more interest in her future projects. Quite frankly I feel a noticeable lack of people excited about Adele's next album, and certainly not anyone under the age of 30 seems to be so.

Just now, gwen stacy said:

I'm not really into Adele stuff but I feel like the impact of this album lasted only a couple of months and all the attention was around Easy on Me (and I Like Wine at the BRITs). The album these days it's clearly not a flop but it really feels forgotten considering her discography is based in only 4 albums.

I feel like Adele Live should have been a Global Tour so the 30 Era could have been a little bit more "memorable".

This is what makes it stand out so much. She releases so infrequently and this album is such a non-event for that. Only four albums and one completely forgettable.

Oh My God is such a cringe attempt at a "bop" mixed in with the rest of the funeral dirges.

So many songs over 6 minutes long without warranting it. My Little Love is beautiful but drags on forever with the "Mummy's been having a lot of big feelings recently" soliloquy

Edited May 14May 14 by JanEgo

I Drink Wine deserved to smash

I respect her for creating a non-radio friendly or TikTok centered album when she would've had multiple smashes if she released rehashes of her 21 hits. Who else is releasing several 5-6 minute songs

I do wish it got more attention because To Be Loved, Strangers By Nature, I Drink Wine, and Love is a Game are some of her best.

oh it's easily my favorite Adele album. Maybe yall just don't get it idk. the old Hollywood orchestral cuts from Ludwig are stunning and I love the jazzy influences as well. It's a grown woman album. Very somber, so not something I reach for always, but it's a really good winter album!

i was on the right side of history on this one, to me it was boring on arrival

I don't love the album overall but To Be Loved is a career highlight

It aged well but definitely forgettable besides Easy on Me. It's not an album I frequently go back to.

She made bad singles choices after Easy on Me, she followed the same pattern she followed with 25 but it didn't work. Send My Love was a bop but OMG was far from being in the same caliber. I Drink Wine was a great single choice but it kind of came too late and they should've made an edit version of the song to make it more digestible.

Even naming it 30 felt like Adele routinely following obligation because it was time. It was the perfect moment to change things up starting with the title. Daughter from Hell would have been a good choice.

7 minutes ago, Tylerbv said:

I respect her for creating a non-radio friendly or TikTok centered album when she would've had multiple smashes if she released rehashes of her 21 hits. Who else is releasing several 5-6 minute songs

I do wish it got more attention because To Be Loved, Strangers By Nature, I Drink Wine, and Love is a Game are some of her best.

What's the point of releasing 5-6 minute songs if none of them are good?

Imagine thinking Adele has any bad albums. Her discography is flawless many pop girls can only dream!

The album is good, but it would have been better without songs that drag on too long.

She should have gone on a world stadium tour instead of those shows in Las Vegas.

To Be Loved and Can't Be Together are her best songs so idc

It's decent but mainly forgotten album, some people mainly gonna remember it as the album that causing a massive backlog in the vinyl supply chain that delayed smaller artists, only for it to end up at Goodwill though.

12 minutes ago, LanaDelRey said:

What's the point of releasing 5-6 minute songs if none of them are good?

I don't know, luckily Adele doesn't have that problem