Top 10 Adele Songs

After the first couple tracks of Adele’s illustrious 2015 album, one may be already be sobbing like a child and questioning how much Adele IS too muchAdele. But then she hits you with the meditative and declarative “I Miss You,” a song that balances the feels and allows one to temporary calm themselves. With some heavy, full sounding drums that perfectly compliment Adele’s soulful vocals, “I Miss You” was a stand out track from the hit 2015 album.

In 2009, Adele was thriving off the success of her debut album yet dealing with the heartbreak of a failed relationship. Upon meeting One Republic’s Ryan Tedder at the Grammy Awards, she enlisted the songwriter to work on her next album, and when he first introduced the opening piano arrangement, Adele had the perfect set of words to complement the sound, especially considering the chaos of her relationship at the time. Based on the concept of flipping the script on matters of the heart, “Turning Tables” became the final single of Adele’s sophomore effort and certainly one of her most stripped down takes on love.

For the sixth track off her third album, Adele penned a surprisingly up-tempo love song dedicated to her baby’s daddy Simon Konecki. From a vocal standpoint, she leaps from note to note with her usual elegance and composure, and let’s be honest – any Adele track with a “Wo-ah, Wo-ah” lyrics will surely become a fan favorite at live stadium performances. It’s fair to say that “Water Under the Bridge” might be a filler song for some of today’s more vocally-challenged pop stars, but the textured acrobatics of Adele make this track something to behold.

Written as a tell off towards her own friends, this track might be a little more playful than most of Adele’s singles, but the message is clear: don’t believe what you hear. By 2011, the British singer was on the verge of reaching legit diva status, and teamed up with Ryan Tedder to compose the sassy “Rumour Has It.” It’s been called both a “banger” and “bootyshaker” by critics, but above all, the song functions as a giant middle finger to all the gossip-spreaders of the world, albeit in the most graceful of ways.

Early in her career Adele found herself at odds with a philandering boyfriend but little did she know that a single punch to his face would inspire a Grammy Award-nominated ballad. While the chorus serves as the most catchy part of “Chasing Pavements,” Adele infused the track with melodic, jazz-inspired vocals, thus highlighting her range before delivering the powerhouse hook. Thanks to the success of “Chasing Pavements,” Adele found herself competing for Grammys against the likes of Coldplay and Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin. As bar fights go, this ended better than most.

When a couple years passed without any new music from Adele it was time for the singer to say “Hello” all over again. Released in October of 2015, the Xavier Dolan directed music video broke VEVO’s 24-hour record for views, racking up 27.7 million clicks within a single day. Focused on the concepts of distant love and regret, “Hello” freed Adele from writer’s block, while her sprawling vocals set a new standard for a world of wannabe imitators. Nobody can sing quite as prolifically as Adele, and her valiant return was a welcomed reminder.

The last Adele single released before a three year absence from the charts, it wasn’t exactly a commercial failure. In fact, it was the first James Bond theme to win an Academy Award, and while moviegoers will naturally correlate “Skyfall” to Bond, this Adele hit came straight from the heart. Originally, she expressed concerned about taking on a Bond song, but director Sam Mendes convinced Adele to separate herself from the film’s content and do what she does best. And well, it worked, as the existential modern classic works on a variety of levels, both within the film and beyond.

If “Rumour Has It” was more of a tongue-in-cheek production, this chart-topping track cemented Adele’s place in history with a little bit of sass and a whole lotta soul. As the song that forever changed the landscape of vocal auditions, “Rolling in the Deep” highlights the diva’s vocal range within the first few seconds, while the lyrical content boasts a timeless quality. In another era, “Rumour Has It” might have become just another soulful hit, but given the emergence of YouTube and the phenomenon that IS Adele, the single became one of the most important songs of the digital age.

Kicking off the Summer of 2011, this pop balled marked a pivotal moment in music history, with Adele becoming the first British female to reach #1 with three consecutive singles. Utilizing the “Wall of Sound” technique made famous by producer Phil Spector, “Set Fire to the Rain” proved what Adele could do with more instrumentation, and effectively served as an audition to the public for the Bond theme epic that would come the following year. More of an experience than an emotional ballad, this track showcased what Adele could accomplish on larger musical scale.

Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.

“Hometown Glory”
19 (2008)

“Don’t You Remember”
21 (2011)

“Cold Shoulder”
19 (2008)

“When We Were Young”
25 (2015)

“River Lea”
25 (2015)

Touching on themes of unfulfilled romance and persisting love, this Adele ballad will pull at any listener with a beating heart. With a music video shot in poignant black and white and a subdued musical aesthetic featuring only a piano and Adele’s heart-wrenching voice, “Someone Like You” conjures up imagery of one’s past and makes us all wonder what might have been in past relationships, even if we know the right decision was ultimately made. In essence, “Someone Like You” captures the human element and what it means to lose somebody you never thought would drift away.

So, do you agree with our selections? What is your favorite Adele song? For more mind-blowing Top 10s published daily, be sure to subscribe to MsMojo.