Adele had serious misgivings about pursuing a career in music after the staggering success of her second album, fearing that she couldn't possibly match her past and feeling exhausted from having poured her heart into the song collection we know as 21.

In an interview to mark the release of her third album 25, which is out on November 20, she spoke candidly about the painful writing process.

“How I felt when I wrote ‘21,’ I wouldn’t want to feel again,” she told The New York Times.

“It was horrible. I was miserable, I was lonely, I was sad, I was angry, I was bitter. I thought I was going to be single for the rest of my life. I thought I was never going to love again. It’s not worth it.”

She said she took a break, had her son Angelo in October 2012, and then went back to have a second go at writing again. But it did not come easily.

“I didn’t think I had it in me to write another record. I didn’t know if I should. Because of how successful ‘21’ was, I thought, ‘Maybe everyone’s happy with that being the last thing from me. Maybe I should bow out on a high.’”

Time passed and maybe friends and an inner desire to quell her own insecurities got the better of  her.

“As time went on, I realized I had no choice. I have to write more music for myself, and there’s nothing else I want to do.”

The now 27-year-old said the success of 21 – which sold 30 million copies worldwide – was “out of control” and left her “a little bit frightened”.

A vocal hemorrhage also threatened to permanently damage her voice, forcing her to cancel extensive touring in 2011 and undergo throat surgery.

But she knew she had to return.

And return she has. Billboard sources peg US CD shipments in the first week at 3.6 million copies, making it the biggest pre-sale shipment since NSYNC's No Strings Attached, which shipped 4.2 million units back in 2000.

 

 

— John Pareles, The New York Times; Hariet Alexander, The Telegraph; Amy Blumsom, The Telegraph.