Really, the stanza-especially the last line, where she calmly allows that hey, maybe this new girl is just better for you than I was-seems like a prelude to some sort of pitch, where she's priming her ex for something more dramatic that she's about to do or say by first letting him know that she's not going to make a scene or anything. Instead, she just lets her ex know that she knows what's up, and that at the very least, she's past the point of freaking out about it-she doesn't sound pissed off or even particularly bitter, mostly just resigned. With the opening lines of "Someone Like You," Adele doesn't really bother with the fake-happiness part, probably because she knows that she's not too emotionally transparent to put the ruse over.
It's rarely genuine and always laced with a mixture of self-pity and regret-in the Chicago song, Peter Cetera Bill Champlin insists he's "really happy for" his ex but still asks her to perform the title action so she won't see him crying, while in the Robyn song, she unenthusiastically claims "That's great!" about her ex's new relationship, but qualifies "I just miss you, that's all." The verse where they either hear through the grapevine that their ex has found somebody new, or actually run into them with their new love in person, and feign happiness (and if possible, visible apathy) at their once-beloved finding happiness with another. There have been countless Put On a Brave Face post-breakup songs in pop history, from Chicago's " Look Away" to Robyn's " Be Mine!," and nearly all of them contain at least one verse like this. Guess she gave you things I didn't give to you. That you found a girl and you're married now. Rather, "Someone Like You" is written from a place of near-acceptance, in which Adele has gotten over both her grief and anger about the breakup, but in one moment of weakness, can't help but take one last stab at trying to get her ex to realize that she still loves him, and if at all possible, that he still loves her too. This is all because "Someone Like You" isn't about the feeling immediately succeeding a breakup-it's actually past that stage, and even well past the bitterness as well. "I was really emotionally drained from the way I was portraying, because even though I'm very bitter and regret some parts of it, he's still the most important person that's ever been in my life." Adele also placed "Someone Like You" as the closing track to her 21 album, implying a sort of final statement for her on her relationship's dissolution. "I wrote because I was exhausted from being such a bitch," the singer told MTV.
Adele says that she wrote "Someone Like You" after "Deep," as something of a reaction to the version of herself she saw in that song.
But with the album out for half a year and "Deep" still the only song to really take hold stateside, the question had to be asked-was Adele going to be a one-smash wonder, her crossover chart-topper making up the entirety of her pop legacy? Adele herself certainly didn't think so, and she was willing to bet her performance at the VMAs on it, where she could have easily brought the house down with "Deep" but instead went with a performance of the much less familiar (though similarly heart-rending) post-breakup ballad "Someone Like You." The gamble paid off, as the well-received performance caused online sales of the song to skyrocket, resulting in the song becoming Adele's second chart-topper on the Hot 100 last week.īut then again, maybe not. Adele captured the nation's hearts-especially the broken ones-with her first chart-topper, "Rolling in the Deep." The song crossed over to nearly every considerable radio platform and received the cover treatment from everyone and their labelmate, helping her 21 album become the year's best-seller on both sides of the Atlantic in the process.