The Problem With ‘Authenticity’

An album that was released just days ago has already become the best-selling record of 2021. Adele’s 30, the first new album from the English singer-songwriter in 6 years, has shot to the top of the charts. It’s certainly not an easy listen, however. 30 has been described as her ‘Divorce album’, with every song saturated with the emotion of her divorce from husband Simon Konecki.

In fact, in her own words, the album was an attempt to explain the divorce to her young son when he gets older. Here’s how she put it: 

‘I just felt like I wanted to explain to him, through this record, when he’s in his twenties or thirties, who I am, and why I voluntarily chose to dismantle his entire life in the pursuit of my own happiness’.

Personally, I’m not sure what’s more shocking – the quote itself or that we’re now at a point in history where such statements are more likely to be greeted by applause than criticism.

Sacrificing even those nearest and dearest to us for our own personal happiness is now applauded. ‘I changed who I was to put you both first,’ she sings, ‘but now I give up’. According to the magazine editor the BBC interviewed about it, ‘that’s a really positive message’.

Read the rest of this post written by Rev. Stephen Steele by clicking here.