The True Meaning Behind Cry Your Heart Out By Adele

Adele Adkins's latest album "30" has been highly anticipated since the star announced she would finally be returning to the music world six years following her last album, "25."

In the six years of her musical absence, Adele was married and then divorced 11 months later. Fans yearned to hear the melancholy lyrics of her new album, one that discusses perils of real life. It's an era of relatability fans were waiting for, and Adele brought just that on "30" with soulful singing and heart-wrenching lyrics.

The album discusses in painstaking honesty divorce and separation, depression, and heartache. But it also shines a light on growth, the beauty of change, and ultimately finding yourself again. "I really think that some of the songs on this album could really help people, really change people's lives," Adele revealed when speaking with Apple Music. "I definitely lost hope a number of times that I'd ever find my joy again," she added. While Adele did find her happiness once again — by the end of the album — she first had to walk through the pain. One of the songs that dives into that pain is the fourth track on the album, "Cry Your Heart Out."

The Motown and R&B-infused track of "Cry Your Heart Out" is a stark juxtaposition to the serious and honest lyrics Adele typically pours out.

"Cry your heart out, it'll clean your face / When you're in doubt, go at your own pace," Adele sings as the song begins. The song is as honest as a diary entry. During the song, it becomes clear that, not only is Adele going through a breakup, but she's also struggling with depression. "When I walk in a room, I'm invisible, I feel like a ghost / I can't get no relief, I'm so tired of myself, I swear I'm dead in the eyes," Adele belts out.

She questions herself: When will she feel like herself again? She is hanging on by a thread, how much more can she take? It's difficult questions like these that Adele is asking herself in "Cry Your Heart Out." And, it seems, these are real questions Adele asked herself. When speaking with Zane Lowe for Apple Music, Adele revealed she went to hell and back: "I realized I actually didn't like who I was," she opened up. 

This moment of self-realization is what "Cry Your Heart Out" speaks to. It is okay to be heartbroken and hurt from an unspoken sadness. It is okay to not feel like yourself. 

But, Adele also added, that this song and the transition of change is not always sad. "Cry Your Heart Out" also speaks to the happy cries, cries for the new person you're becoming, and the moments of happiness. That is why there is such a juxtaposition between the background music and the lyrics. If you wanted to dance, she told Apple Music, you can dance to your change, or if you need to cry, you can do that too. "Cry Your Heart Out" represents two sides of the same coin — the happy, the sad, the confused, and scared all at the same time. 

By the end of "Cry Your Heart Out," Adele is inching towards finding herself again, because that is true progress: a slow, painful evolution toward a new you. And as Adele put it, in order to heal, cry your heart out and go at your own pace because you will find yourself once again. "But give it to yourself now before it's too late / In the end, it's just you."