Brow Beat

Adele’s New Album Drops Nov. 20—and Features Some Incredibly Banal Song Names

Information about Adele’s long-awaited third album, 25, has leaked out in dribs and drabs over the past few months, but we finally have some solid good news: The first single from 25, “Hello” (which we’ve already heard a snippet of) comes out this Friday, and the full album will be released around the world on Friday, Nov. 20. Calling the album a “make-up record,” Adele said in a statement, “I’m making up with myself. Making up for lost time. Making up for everything I ever did and never did.”

Adele’s label has also released a track list for the forthcoming album, and unfortunately it is nowhere near as illuminating as Adele’s statement on “making up.” In fact, it features some of the most banal song titles in recent memory. They are:

1. Hello
2. Send My Love (to Your New Lover)
3. I Miss You
4. When We Were Young
5. Remedy
6. Water Under the Bridge
7. River Lea
8. Love in the Dark
9. Million Years Ago
10. All I Ask
11. Sweetest Devotion

If I didn’t know this is the track list for 25, I’d guess it was a collection of easy-listening standards from the 1950s. Just how unoriginal are these song titles? A quick search of Song://Database, which catalogs all the songs that have appeared on Billboard charts since 1940, finds records of 10 songs called “I Miss You,” seven called “Hello,” two called “Remedy,” and one called “When We Were Young.” And that’s just songs that have charted, not even including variations like “I Miss You So” or “Hello Again.” Searching for keywords from the above track list reveals even more popular song names that sound a lot like Adele’s new song. (Search for songs about water and bridges at your own peril.)

To be fair, Adele has never been one for unique song titles: 19 featured the unimaginative titles “Best for Last,” “Crazy for You,” and “Now and Then,” and 21’s tracklist includes ho-hum song names like “Don’t You Remember,” “I’ll Be Waiting,” and “One and Only.” She practically specializes in giving songs titles that tell you nothing about their content. This is not to denigrate her songwriting skills—her lyrics have always been raw, honest, and personal—just to say that her song titling skills are maybe not quite up to snuff. Luckily for listeners, she hasn’t yet released a song that sounds as boring as its title would suggest.