Adele Gives Fans a Window Into ’30,’ Apologizes for Appropriating Hairstyle

Adele revealed some details about her anticipated-but-not-yet-announced new album, likely called 30, in a new interview with Vogue.

According to the singer, while the album was largely written and recorded during the period in her life where she was separating from her ex-husband Simon Konecki, the LP is more of a dialogue to her now-nine-year-old son Angelo about the situation.

“He has so many simple questions for me that I can’t answer because I don’t know the answer. Like, ‘Why can’t we still live together?’ ‘That’s just not what people do when they get divorced. ‘But why not?’ I’m like, ‘I don’t fucking know. That’s not what society does,” Adele told Vogue. “It was more me divorcing myself. Just being like, ‘Bitch, fuckin’ hot mess, get your fuckin’ shit together!’”

Adele also noted that the album features collaborators like producer Greg Kurstin — who worked on her hit “Hello” as well as the upcoming single “Easy on Me,” out October 15th — along with Max Martin and Shellback, Oscar-winning composer Ludwig Göransson, previous collaborator Tobias Jesso Jr., and Danger Mouse associate Inflo.

“It’s sensitive for me, this record, just in how much I love it,” Adele said. “I always say that 21 doesn’t belong to me anymore. Everyone else took it into their hearts so much. I’m not letting go of this one. This is my album. I want to share myself with everyone, but I don’t think I’ll ever let this one go.”

According to Vogue, another album track was recorded while the singer had the classic film Breakfast at Tiffany’s on mute in the studio. “As it finished, we were trying to work out how to end the song, and I said, ‘We should write it as if we were writing the soundtrack’—you know, at the end of the movie, where it pans out,” Adele said.

Elsewhere in the interview, Adele owned up to the controversy she caused when — during a trip to Jamaica — she posted an Instagram photo of herself wearing a Jamaican flag bikini with her hair in Bantu knots, which drew accusations of cultural appropriation. “I totally get why people felt like it was appropriating,” she said. “I was wearing a hairstyle that is actually to protect Afro hair. Ruined mine, obviously.”