Sometimes albums become SO big amongst The World At Large that there’s a tendency to file them under ‘overrated’ or, on some corners of Twitter, a bit ‘Fiat 500’.

With Adele’s 21 – the biggest album of the 21st century and one of the best-sellers of all time globally – I can’t say I ever overplayed it to death, but there’s never been any doubt in my mind that it’s one hell of a record… and listening to it again today, on the 10th anniversary of its release, it still 100% holds up.

Thinking back, I remember at the time thinking that Rolling In The Deep – its lead single – was great, and had enough buzz and potential to be a big hit. At that point, Adele was a mid-level artist in terms of fame and success: her 19 era performed well (Chasing Cars and Make You Feel My Love especially), but she needed a successful second album to secure her place in the spotlight long-term.

In its first week of release, Rolling In The Deep did indeed do well – but it wasn’t the all-conquering smash I thought it could’ve been (at least not at first). Arriving one week ahead of the full album, it debuted on the UK singles chart at No2, behind reigning chart-topper Grenade by Bruno Mars… and I took that as a sign that the 21 era would do well enough to stop Adele sinking into oblivion, but really nothing more.

‘Lol’. It didn’t even OCCUR to me that it would go on to set fire to the rain globe.

21 was released on January 24, 2011; selling over 200,000 copies in the UK its first week and rapidly becoming an unstoppable force in territories all over the planet. Wikipedia reckons it has sold over 31 million copies all-in, and it’s essentially had total. World. Domination.

There’s no question that it made Adele a global megastar and is now one of the all-time greats. But if you had to highlight one big moment – the exact point at which it went from a ‘Really Massive Album’ to a ‘No Seriously This Is A REALLY FUCKING MASSIVE Album’ – what would it be?

Is it the BRITs? I’m gonna say it’s the BRITs. At least as far as this country is concerned.

When the James Corden-fronted ceremony took place in mid-February 2011, just three weeks after 21 came out, the record was already at No1 and collecting plenty of fuss and acclaim. But that exceptional rendition of Someone Like You is arguably what kept it at the summit for much longer. It was late April before it slipped to No2, and even then it wasn’t even close to done: it went on to have another twelve non-consecutive weeks at the top after that.

As for that song specifically? WHEW! A piano ballad with a sense of devastating resignation, it had already generated almost as much early chatter as Rolling In The Deep, thanks to a spellbinding sing-song for Jools Holland in November 2010. But after the BRITs, it became a total and utter behemoth, and the country’s best-selling track of 2011; that emotional performance sending it surging from No47 to No1 in a single week. It stayed on top for a month.

Listening back now, both of those first two singles still sound so timeless – and so does so much of the rest of the record.

Turning Tables, a Ryan Tedder co-write, delivers on balladry that’s even more dramatic than Someone Like You; Rumour Has It (also made with Tedder) is an irresistibly fiery kiss-off; and I’ll Be Waiting is an example of joy and hope amidst the heartbreak, even if it is kinda bittersweet. Oh, and One And Only? Divine!

As a pop nerd, this is such a fascinating era to look back on. The success was absolutely monstrous, and it hasn’t even gone away yet: it’s so far had 292 weeks in the UK Top 100, including this very week (it’s at No97). It’s gone 17x Platinum here and Diamond (14x Platinum) in the US, and it’s pretty much guaranteed that anything Adele puts out for the rest of her career will be met with a huge amount of fanfare and anticipation.

She became a megastar for the ages thanks to this. I think there’s a lot to be said for the fact that the music on 21 is intensely vulnerable and personal, but it’s also universally relatable – and it came from someone who wasn’t seen as this unreachable, super-glitzy, super-aloof A-lister who was leagues above us mere mortals. Adele had (and still has, to an extent) an ‘everywoman’ quality about her, in her honesty and her personality – and I think that really helped people to hook in to her music, hear elements of their own experiences, and feel a certain affinity with her. It resonated so strongly, and on such a global scale, that 21 became an album for the history books, and Adele is unquestionably a pop culture icon.

Will we ever see another era like this? The chart certainly moves at a very slow pace now, and successful albums are hanging around for months and years at a time – just look at how the Greatest Showman soundtrack somehow managed 28 weeks at No1, or the fact that Lewis Capaldi’s album was the biggest-seller of both 2019 and 2020 in the UK.

But in terms of an album that has quite this much cultural impact, and makes such a global A-lister out of its artist? It’s hard to imagine it happening again any time soon, but I’m sure it will. I can’t wait to find out who for.

In the meantime… can Adele get a wriggle on with that fourth album?