Critics rave over Adele's 'sublime' comeback single Easy On Me

Adele's new single Easy On Me has been lauded by critics after the singer released her first music in over five years.   

The highly-anticipated song, released on YouTube at midnight on Friday ahead of her album 30 set to drop next month, has garnered more than 23 million views within the first 12 hours and topped iTunes charts in the UK and US. 

The music video soon shot to YouTube's top trending clip and within hours Easy On Me became the fourth most-played song on Apple Music in the US. 

Now MailOnline takes a look at the reviews coming in for the new single ahead of the rest of her album dropping.   

Starting off the positive feedback, the Evening Standard's five-star review of the track described it as 'quintessential Adele', adding that the singer remains 'impervious to today's pop music trends'.

Jochan Embley also said that while Easy on Me does not match the 'sorrow of Someone Like You' or the 'emotional heights of Hello', it is 'just as powerful'. 

In a four-star review of the song, The Independent's's Alexandra Pollard applauded the 'crisp, plaintive and mature comeback'.

She added: 'Her songs are always polished but never to the point of soullessness' in her positive review.  

In a review for Variety, Chris Willman wrote that the new track sees Adele 'taking responsibility' for her part in the 'downfall of a relationship'.

'It's Adele and just a piano from beginning to end… and the faintest hint of rhythm if you squint into the ether,' he added.

A four-star review for The Times described Easy on Me as 'a great tune' that 'won't change the world'. 

A section of the review states: 'The song itself is exactly what you would expect, with some sad yet somehow uplifting piano chords holding down words about growing up in public and making mistakes accordingly.'

While the critic states that the track is 'nice and accomplished', he also notes: 'I couldn't help but feel a sheen of thoroughly American professionalism that stops the emotions from really hitting home in the way they did on Someone Like You.'

The Telegraph gave the song a five-star review, calling it a 'bold comeback single'.

The critic said: 'The bare bones ballad' is 'a thing of beauty and wonder'.  

'It's not a heartbreak anthem as much as a tentatively hopeful ballad from a woman emerging from an emotionally marooned period,' NPR's Latesha Harris said of the song. 

While Forbes said the song could be summed up as 'spectacular,' Rolling Stone said that the singer's comeback song has 'reduced the world to tears' .

And the BBC described the song as 'a big woolly blanket wrapped around the loneliness and pain of anyone who's been through a core-shaking break-up.' 

The Guardian gave the song a three-star review, with critic Alexis Petridis writing: 'You hear it and think 'yes, that's definitely Adele, doing the stuff that Adele does''. 

'I am shaking, crying and throwing up!' Adele fans flood social media with hilarious memes as singer releases Easy On Me 

Adele fans flooded the internet with hilarious memes as they reacted to the release of her new single, Easy On Me.  

The singer dropped her first new track in five years on Friday, along with the music video - which sees the star, 33, pack up her house and drive away, as pages of sheet music flutter out of the windows onto the road.  

The highly-anticipated single was teased last week, along with the release of her upcoming album 30; and fans sat patiently on YouTube at midnight on Friday to hear the track for the first time - which is inspired by her divorce from Simon Konecki. 

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Fans were quick to joke that while the single may have been called Easy On Me, Adele hadn't taken it with the easy with the vocals and lyrics, which left them blown away. 

Other listeners quipped that they were pretending to be divorced in order to relate to the break up inspired song while some discussed having very strong physical reactions to the track, joking they were 'shaking, crying and throwing up'.

Another notable meme came in the form of fans joking that the video was a continuation of her video for 2015's Hello - in which the singer also belted out a ballad while roaming around an empty house. 

Adele revealed this week that Easy On Me, as well as 30, will be about the 'inner turmoil' she felt as she divorced ex-husband Simon.

The lyrics include the lines, 'We're both so deeply stuck in our ways, you can't deny how hard I've tried. I changed who I was to put you both first,' as well as, 'Go easy on me. I was still a child, didn't get the chance to feel the world around me, had no time to choose, what I chose to do, so go easy on me...'

She chants: 'I had good intentions and high hopes but I know it now probably doesn't even show.'

The video transfers from a black and white filter to colour halfway through, and starts with the singer on the phone, telling someone she's on her way and that she might lose signal.    

Fans voiced their approval on social media, with one simply penning: 'Adele’s new song = goosebumps! Never in doubt of that queen!'

Another agreed: 'Goosebumps listening to that new Adele drop. What a beautiful song man!'

A third chimed in: 'Literally goosebumps all over, Adele is just incredible! Literally goosebumps all over my body!!'

Another joked, 'Currently crying and throwing up at this new Adele!' as someone else agreed: 'Adele really got us single ass people crying over a breakup that never happened!'

Others penned, 'One minute into the new Adele song and I started sobbing,' and: 'If the rest of Adele’s album is like “Easy on me”, I will most definitely be sobbing the entire time!' 

Another impassioned fan wrote: 'I love the fact that Adele chose a side profile for her

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