“I Drink Wine” is the seventh track on Adele’s 2021 album ’30.’ In the song, Adele sings about how her adult life has not turned out exactly how she envisioned it when she was a child. The youthful exuberance filter has been ripped off of her eyes after marriage, child, and divorce.
Adele released her fourth studio album ’30’ on November 19, 2021. The only single from the album, “Easy On Me,” took the world by storm, breaking streaming records. The album follows the series of albums released in correspondence with her age at the time of recording each album.
The heartbreak-inspired album ’30’ dives deep into Adele’s relationship with Simon Konecki that ended in divorce in 2021. She sings about these tumulus times in her life that have resorted her to sip wine and reevaluate her life so far. A drastic change in one’s personal life can make one feel as if they are numb. Wine only adds to the problem here. But it can transport you to a worry-free world.
Listen to “I Drink Wine” by Adele
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Adele “I Drink Wine” Lyrics Meaning and Song Review
Verse 1
In the first verse of the song, Adele sings about how life did not turn out exactly how she imagined it would be when she was a child. The choices we make, shape our future. Sometimes these choices can be forced upon us. Sometimes, other peoples’ choices impact our lives. These different choices, at times out of our control, could make us turn into people that we did not intend to be. Then we might start to dislike our own selves.
How come we’ve both become a version of a person we don’t even like?
As children, the world looks like a reel of magic. Everything blows our minds and we cannot wait to grow up and explore more. But life happens and as we grow up, we get to witness the underbelly of adult life. That innocent smile on the child’s face soon turns into a gloom that does not go away until very later in life.
They say to play hard, you work hard, find balance in the sacrifice
And yet I don’t know anybody who’s truly satisfied
Is anyone really satisfied in life? Having more is not necessarily equivalent to being satisfied. It is often the people who have less and who can be content with what they have, are satisfied with life. Adele gave birth to a massive international music career and also to a child. One might say that she has all her juggles in balance. But her marriage failed and she realized that no one can truly remain happy forever.
Pre-chorus
In these lyrics, Adele sings that she has not given up despite having had a crushing blow to her personal life. She has no choice but to keep looking forward and climbing the mountain that is life. But the dilemma of adult life is that despite gaining more and more experience, we never feel smarter than yesterday. The more you know, the more you doubt.
Chorus
In the hook of the song, Adele talks to herself — her inner self. Learning to love yourself is a two-way street. You have to be content with the person you’ve become. We have to imagine another person living inside of us (who is an exact replica of us) and learn to love them. If this inner person and ‘outer’ person are two different people (i.e. what you are versus what you want to be), loving yourself can be difficult. Everyone around Adele wants Adele for their personal gains. But this person living inside of her wants only one thing — to become exactly as Adele.
Verse 2
In the second verse of the song, Adele sings about certain things that are beyond her control, which have impacted her life in a major way. Her recent divorce is something she had no control over towards the end of their relationship. She did not want a divorce. But her hands were forced to do so by things/people beyond her control — primarily her now ex-husband.
Adele’s life was rocked upside down with her divorce. She feels horrible about it but she had little control over it. Now she just wants some substance (1. something real 2. a reference to wine) in her life to bring her back to reality.
Bridge
Adele tries to console herself. Every good or bad thing that happens in your life, shapes the future of both the inner and outer shells. Right now, both these people are overwhelmed and may look like they are entirely different. When the dust settles, Adele wants to realign these two people together. Until that time, she will drown herself in wine.
Sometimes, the road less traveled is a road best left behind
The road less traveled is supposed to be less congested, unique, and serve a better purpose. However, these roads are less traveled for a reason. Not all these abandoned roads lead to better results.
Outro
According to Adele, she only wished that the things that happened in her life had a different timeline. Maybe she wanted to fall in love at age 30, and not 24. Maybe she could have sheltered her son from all the turmoil of her life right now. But everything in life happens for a reason, and maybe what really happened was the best alternative among many. Life is funny like that sometimes.
Let us hear what you think about this song in the comments below. Check out the complete lyrics on Genius.