“Hold On” is the 10th track on
30, an album that feels nostalgic nevertheless not recycled, fresh, and inherently
Adele. Once this song starts, everything goes dark. Nevertheless because the singer’s powerful, lachrymose voice echoes the title, a beacon of light draws you back to hope, grounding you. “Let time be patient / Let pain be gracious,” she sings as a manifestation for her own struggles and her listeners’. At the bridge — “Sometimes loneliness is the only rest we get / And the emptiness actually lets us forget / Some days forgiveness is easiness in secret” — things come into focus with simple, profound wisdom up until Adele’s trademark crescendo. Nevertheless heartbreaking, what's so hopeful about this masterful collection is that you could visualize the artist on the other side of her pain. She recently
told Oprah how
30’s release was the closing of that chapter. While this music is intended to meet you somewhere along your journey of grief, pain, and lost love, it reminds you to “hold on / You are still strong / Love will soon come.” Adele did. Look at her right now. —
Daniel Head