Someone like you - Adele
Inspiration and meaning
This is a song that talks about love coming to an end. Adele is trying to assimilate that her relationship with her ex-boyfriend has end and this song is about that, about how hard is to recover from a broken relation. If we look the track listings of 21 we will see that this song is the final one (however the bonus track I found a boy). At first sight, it might not have a meaning, but its clear that she is trying to mark that the love she's been talking about along the album, came to an end and the song is trying to show us that.
Adele has openly discussed about this song. She was tired of showing her ex-boyfriend as a bad boy. She was giving a bad image of him. Of course, she is bitter about the relationship she had during two years but this boy was her love too. So, pushing away the "hate" she wrote that song.
Adele explained that she wrote the song when she had just ended up her relationship. Someone like you may seem a song about forgiving but it's not at all. As I said, she wrote it as a way to express how she felt after the break-up. She thought she would marry him but he said he was not ready. However, a months later he got engaged and Adele felt horrible. So, she wrote Someone like you.
So, after all I've explained you I think that the message of the song is not as clear as it seems. I've said it's about her feelings after the break-up, about him, about not hating him... but those are only details of what is the main message. In the first sentence Adele wrote: I heard that you're settled down, that you found a girl and you're married now. With that it's obvious what's going on. Adele realises that he has found love and thinks of how will she feel in a years when she will be alone while he will be happy. The fear of that is the meaning of this song.
Music
Someone like you is a special song when we talk about music. No harmonies, no orquestra, no choir,... simply Adele and a piano. It's so simple that is magic. I think that Adele is trying to show that we must listen to the song paying attention to its lyrics and not to the music.
So, a piano playing almost the same chords always and with a little more strenght in the chorus and Adele's wonderful voice are the only music we can find in this song.
Critics
When I heard 21 track-by-track I was so astonished. I found every song a whole world. But when it was coming to the end... wow! Someone like you is, for me, the highlight of the album. It may be a cliché to leave it until the final but Adele shows us a beautiful and sad song that is obviously the final of the album. I mean, I can't imagine 21 ending with another song. You can die after hearing the song. I don't know how to express what it says to me but, boy, when I want to calm down, to cry, to smile, to be happy... Someone like you is the song I choose. It's surprising how can a piano and a voice make one of the best pop-soul songs of the year.
At this moment, I just wish I could listen to her in live.
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