One of the most anticipated albums in pop history – the follow-up to Adele‘s record-breaking 21 – almost certainly won’t be released before the Autumn and may take even longer, sources have told MBW.
Adele is understood to be in Los Angeles this week working on new songs.
Many had expected her third album to arrive in early 2015, which would follow the pattern of her previous two releases: 19 (January 28, 2008) and 21 (19 January, 2011). And, at some point, it was certainly pencilled in for that release window.
But sources have told MBW that all parties working in Team Adele – including management company September, UK label XL/Beggars and US label Columbia – are supportive of her taking her time; to the point that (hold your breath, worldwide industry sales monitors) her third album isn’t even currently guaranteed to arrive this year.
A source close to Team Adele told MBW: “The album will be released when it’s ready – [we] hope that will be at some stage in 2015. That’s all I can tell you right now.”
Another US source told us that “logically, there is now almost no chance” of the LP being ready for release before the second half of 2015.
Media discussion surrounding the creation of Adele’s follow-up to 21, which has has now sold more than 30 million copies in the US, has been ongoing since the singer largely stepped away from the spotlight in 2012.
In January last year, Phil Collins said he was co-writing with the star – but later suggested that the sessions didn’t go anywhere.
Then, last summer, Adele appeared to hint that the LP was on the way later in 2014. On May 26, the day before her birthday, she tweeted: ‘Bye bye 25… see you again later in the year xx’
More recently Damon Albarn was heavily rumoured to be helping with the record; a connection that would make sense as he’s a good friend of Adele’s label boss at XL, Richard Russell.
Others tipped to be involved with the project, which began in 2013, include Ryan Tedder, Dianne Warren, Kid Harpoon and James Ford.
Some reports about the record have rather lacked credibility: a tabloid story last year suggested that Adele and her manager at September, Jonathan Dickins, had signed the LP to Sony for the world.
Certainly for this album, that seems daftly inaccurate.
Whenever the LP arrives, there’s definitely no commercial reason for Team Adele to rush it: last year in the US, 21 – in its third year on the market – outsold new albums from the likes of Sia and Mariah Carey.
In the UK, it outsold new LPs from Cheryl, Hozier and Iggy Azalea.Music Business Worldwide
