Adele - 21

‘21’ is indeed a very simplistic album cover in comparison to others such as Katy Perry’s One of the Boys or most pop sensations. However, despite first appearances, the single image of the soul songstress Adele with simple lettering depicting the title and the artist of the album - actually creates an image that’s more effective than any amount of photo shopped images and variety of colours seen by most pop artists.

She’s always been a confessional singer-songwriter who explores themes of anger, revenge, heartbreak, self-examination and forgiveness, and uses her own personal experiences to write her songs.

When first released, Adele went on to explain the inspiration behind her new album and it’s title:

“I’m very excited, nervous, eager, anxious but chuffed to announce my new album! It’s taken a while and it knocked me for six when writing it. It’s different from ‘19’, it’s about the same things but in a different light. I deal with things differently now. I’m more patient, more honest, more forgiving and more aware of my own flaws, habits and principles. Something that comes with age I think. So fittingly, this record is called ’21.’ The whole reason I called my first album ‘19’ was about cataloguing what happened to me then and who I was then, like a photo album you see the progression and changes in a person throughout the years.”

Now when examining her album title, the emotion behind the simplistic design seems so obvious.

The monochrome effect gives the audience a sense of nostalgia, as it’s usually associated with events that have happened in the past. This basically depicts Adele’s lyrics and song writing skills as she stems her hard-hitting lyrics from events that she’s been through. For example, take her song Someone Like You - Adele wrote the song about a past love who moved on with his life, with someone new, and she was unable to do the same.

It also has an impact on the audience as it stands out from the typical, bright album covers, almost reflecting Adele’s status as an artist because she is an individual artist who makes music for herself, and not for the money or fame. The colouring could also connotate the darker meaning behind the songs featured, and suggesting that maybe the lyrics are a little more hard-hitting than her previous album.


Using the monochrome effect, also allows the cover to be aesthetically pleasing to the audience as it suggests a calm and relaxed feel, which reflects in Adele's songs as they're ones you can kick back and relax too.

The expression on Adele’s face, as well as the body language suggests a certain fatigue for her emotions. The closed eyes connotate her tiredness, and if you listen to the tracks in her album, this assumption is reflected by her songs showing her heart-ache and struggle with love. Adele’s hand placement backs up this as when tired, most people lean on their hand to prop themselves up. 


The lighting on the cover could also represent that this album is Adele's way of coming out of the shadows and revealing a little more of herself, since the light is directly pointed towards her face. Her first album 19 (see image below) is a shot of Adele mostly in the shadows. So possibly, with the development of her songs, and albums, she's revealing herself more and more towards the public - with a little more of her shown in each album cover.




The positioning of the text on 21, suggests that she wants people to know who wrote these songs, but doesn't care all that much as it's positioned to the bottom right of the cover. Just like the picture featured on the cover, the lack of creativity in the font doesn't reflect in Adele's song writing skills, and backs up the idea that she doesn't really care for material things as long as she gets her point across.