In April 2009, 20-year-old Adele, who had recently embarked on her first serious relationship with a man 10 years her … See more

21 bears influences of Adele's extended exposure to the music of the Southern United States during the North American leg of her 2008–2009 tour An Evening with Adele. Frequent smoke breaks with her tour bus driver, a … See more

The sequence of the tracks on the deeply autobiographical album correlates with the range of emotions Adele experienced after the break-up, progressing from themes of anger and bitterness to feelings of loneliness, … See more

For the North American release of 21 on 22 February, Columbia Records executives employed the "'long tail' sales theory" to shape its marketing campaign, which, according to Columbia Senior VP of Marketing … See more

21 received universal critical acclaim from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 76, based on 34 reviews… See more