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To Be Loved (Adele song)
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Wikipedia article
"'To Be Loved'" is a song by English singer Adele from her fourth studio album '30' (2021). Adele wrote it with Tobias Jesso Jr., who produced it with Shawn Everett. The song became available as the album's 11th track on 19 November 2021, when it was released by Columbia Records. A torch ballad, "To Be Loved" has piano instrumentation and sets Adele's echoey vocals over minimalistic production. The song is about the sacrifices one must make upon falling in love and addresses her divorce from Simon Konecki, attempting to justify to her son why their marriage did not succeed.
"To Be Loved" received rave reviews from music critics, who highlighted Adele's vocal performance on it as one of her all-time best and one of the best of the year. Several publications included the song in their list of the best songs of 2021. It reached the top 40 in Australia, Canada, Sweden, the United States, and entered the charts in some other countries. Adele did not perform "To Be Loved" live, but shared a clip of her performing it, accompanied by live piano, on social media.
Background and promotion
Adele began working on her fourth studio album by 2018. She filed for divorce from her husband Simon Konecki in September 2019, which inspired the album. After experiencing anxiety, Adele undertook therapy sessions and mended her estranged relationship with her father. The years following the divorce plagued her, especially due to the effect it had on her son. Adele decided to have regular conversations with him, which she recorded following advice from her therapist. These conversations inspired her return to the studio and the album took shape as a body of work that would explain to her son why she left his father. Adele released "Easy on Me" as the lead single from the album, entitled '30', on 14 October 2021.
Adele wrote the song "To Be Loved" with Tobias Jesso Jr., who had written two songs for her third studio album '25' (2015)"When We Were Young" and "Lay Me Down". "To Be Loved" was among the songs she played for her father shortly prior to his dying from cancer, after which they both cried. Adele said about its inspiration: "My main goal in life is to be loved in love. And so I wanted to play it to my dad being like, 'You're the reason I haven't done that yet,' he was the reason I haven't fully accessed what it is to be in a loving relationship with somebody." While creating "To Be Loved", she envisioned playing it for her son when he would be in his 30s. The song was announced as the 11th track on the album on 1 November 2021.
On 17 November, Adele posted a clip of her performing "To Be Loved" in her living room, accompanied by live piano. It was well-received on the Internet. 'Rolling Stone's Althea Legaspi described the rendition as "devastatingly gorgeous", and 'Billboard's Heran Mamo called it "casually soul-crushing". As her voice grew louder, the sound in the clip became increasingly distorted, which led 'Variety's Chris Willman and 'The Guardian Nigeria's Oreoritse Tariemi to comment that "it sound[ed] like it was about to break her phone". About the prospect of performing the song again in the future, Adele stated, "I don't think I'll do it live. I can't even listen to it, so no. I have to leave the room, I get really upset, I get really choked up." It became available for digital download on '30', which was released two days later.
Composition
"To Be Loved" is 6 minutes and 43 seconds long. Jesso Jr. played the piano, and produced the song with Shawn Everett, who engineered it with Ivan Wayman. Randy Merrill mastered it, and Matt Scatchell and Tom Elmhirst mixed it.
"To Be Loved" is a torch ballad, with minimalistic piano instrumentation. 'The Guardian's Alexis Petridis described the song as a sharp piano ballad that progresses at the speed of a "12-mile tailback on the M62," which seems like it has a run-time of about six weeks, a remarkable, guttural vocal at its climax notwithstanding. It opens with a powerful and unabashed piano line. "To Be Loved" sets Adele's echoey vocals over "minimal, exposed production", which 'The A.V. Club's Gabrielle Sanchez thought sounded like "she's singing on an empty stage", and 'The New York Times's Jon Pareles described as "live-sounding". She employs a chest belt that switches between a vibrato and vocal growls, spanning a mezzo-soprano vocal range. Adele's voice cracks during the bridge. She delivers the song's highest note with the words "I tried". Critics compared Adele's vocal performance on it to Whitney Houston. Writing for 'Clash', Robin Murray thought her prolonged and dulcet vocal lines drew full strength from her throat, and further compared them to vocalized pirouettes performed by Houston during her prime. 'The Telegraph's Neil McCormick described the climax of "To Be Loved" as a testimonial epilogue so gigantic that she sounds as if she might break her vocal cords.
Adele addresses her divorce from Konecki on "To Be Loved", explaining to her son why her marriage did not succeed, a theme also explored on '30's third track "My Little Love". The song has lyrics about persevering in a relationship with the sole reason of wanting to be loved. She describes the price one has to pay upon completely and unapologetically falling in love with someone else in it. Adele justifies the seperation as she believes the marriage deprived her of the true love she had been seeking her whole life, and parts ways in hopes that a greater love is possible. On "To Be Loved", she confronts what it means to share her life, attempting to gauge where her trust and dependence transformed into self-erasure: "To be loved and love at the highest count/Means to lose all the things I can't live without," and states, "I can't live a lie". 'Slant Magazine's Eric Mason described the song as "the internal monologue of a Broadway actor who's been unexpectedly left alone on stage".
Critical reception
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"To Be Loved" received rave reviews from music critics. 'Pitchfork's Gio Santiago named the song an "off-the-cuff masterpiece" and thought Adele reached new levels of vulnerability with it. He likened it to an 11 o'clock number and stated that it placed determinedly among a collection of heartbreak songs. Cat Sposato of 'NPR' wrote that "To Be Loved" was her at her prime vocally, noting Adele delivered her final vocals on it with extenuating passion that might be powerful enough to cure all her old lesions. Writing for 'The Guardian', Kitty Empire named the song '30's defining track as well as "the Burj Khalifa of piano ballads". Jason Lipshutz of 'Billboard' deemed it the most dexterous moment of the album and the "most mesmerizing powerhouse vocal performance" of Adele's career.
McCormick described "To Be Loved" as an eye-catching ballad, and opined its final vocals were almost flabbergasting to hear, the crude emotion achieving something "beyond musical finesse". Sanchez thought Adele was at her pinnacle on the song, her "raw, powerhouse performance" likely to induce an impulse to applaud from the listener. 'Pitchfork's Jillian Mapes opined it will go down in history, and saw her do what she is best at, "creat[ing] a world of feeling out of little more than her voice and then tak[ing] you to the brink". Kyle Mullin of 'Exclaim!' thought the wounded piano and high notes of "To Be Loved" shared the chill-inducing quality of "Someone like You" (2011). Writing for the 'Los Angeles Times', Mikael Wood described the vocals in the song's climax as "a howl of pain", and deemed it remarkable that it did not stop time in Los Angeles when she recorded it and make everyone wonder what they had just witnessed.
Murray thought the beautiful melody and chord structure of "To Be Loved" contrasted its dark lyrics. 'NME's El Hunt thought the song's production is so tender, one can almost feel the silky "hammers of the keys". Sanchez praised its figurative lyricism. David Cobbald of 'The Line of Best Fit' considered "To Be Loved" both lyrically and melodically strong, as well as "one of Adele's best vocal performances to date", but thought its replayability was compromised by its theatricality. Writing for 'MusicOMH', Graeme Marsh thought she went overboard feeling sorry for herself, and came across as if she was trying to convince herself she did everything to prevent her divorce, a recurring theme on '30', but described the song as stunning nonetheless.
Several publications included "To Be Loved" in their list of the best songs of 2021. 'The Sydney Morning Herald's Robert Moran placed the song at number three, and deemed it worthy of a standing ovation due to Adele's stentorian vocals reminiscent of Houston. Lindsay Zoladz of 'The New York Times' included it at number six, and stated that it was emblematic of her being "regal as ever", but freshly open to the world and daring enough to get a little sullied. Willman listed "To Be Loved" at number seven, opined it was the most monumental '30' track, and thought Adele's vocal performance on it would make listeners shout from their rooftops that "Adele is one of the great singers of our lifetime". The 'Los Angeles Times' placed the song at number 10, and Wood declared it "the vocal performance of the year".
Jordan Rose of 'Complex' included "To Be Loved" at number 19, naming it one of the "crown jewels" of Adele's discography, and deemed it "beautiful, painful, and [illustrative of] one of the album's core themes: authentic love comes at a cost and it never truly fades away". 'The Line of Best Fit' listed the song at number 37, and Cobbald stated that it was a standout on '30' and "arguably Adele's best vocal performance to date", topping off her position as the "queen of heartbroken millennials". 'Pitchfork's Owen Myers placed it at number 39, and praised her vocal control on it: "She pushes her voice way past the elegant restraint that is her signature, as it curdles into squalls and ragged screams." Andrew Unterberger of 'Billboard' included "To Be Loved" at number 45, and remarked that Adele "sinks her heart, soul and diaphragm into [the] personal anthem about refusing to regret not looking before she leaps" over its deservedly lengthy duration. The song was also placed on unranked lists by the Associated Press and 'Vogue'.
Commercial performance
In the United Kingdom, "To Be Loved" debuted at number 12 on the Official Audio Streaming Chart. The song charted at number 32 on the US 'Billboard' Hot 100. It peaked at number 16 on the Canadian Hot 100. In Australia, "To Be Loved" reached number 25. On the 'Billboard' Global 200, the song peaked at number 19. It reached national record charts, at number 26 in Sweden, number 48 in Portugal, and number 116 in France.
Credits and personnel
Credits are adapted from the liner notes of '30'.
*Tobias Jesso Jr. producer, songwriter, piano
*Shawn Everett producer, engineering
*Adele songwriter
*Randy Merrill mastering
*Matt Scatchell mixing
*Tom Elmhirst mixing
*Ivan Wayman engineering
Charts
References
Category:2021 songs
Category:Adele songs
Category:Songs written by Adele
Category:Songs written by Tobias Jesso Jr.
Category:Torch songs
Category:2020s ballads
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