Remedy

Remedy — Adele (2015)

"Remedy" is a piano ballad by Adele, released as part of her third studio album 25, which came out on November 20, 2015, through XL Recordings and Columbia Records. The song was written by Adele Adkins and Ryan Tedder, the latter being one of the most prolific and commercially successful songwriters and producers in contemporary pop music, known for his work with artists ranging from Beyonce to OneRepublic. "Remedy" stands as one of the most emotionally direct tracks on 25, an album that as a whole became one of the most commercially successful recordings in the history of the music industry.

25 was the follow-up to Adele's second album 21, which had itself been a phenomenon of unprecedented commercial magnitude, selling more than 31 million copies worldwide and remaining on the Billboard 200 for more than two years following its 2011 release. The pressure surrounding 25 was therefore enormous, and Adele navigated it by making an album that was both consistent with 21's emotional sensibility and more personal in its subject matter, drawing on the experiences of the years between the two records including a serious romantic relationship, the birth of her son Angelo, and a deepened sense of her own identity and priorities.

"Remedy" was specifically written about Adele's son and her relationship with her mother, making it one of the most explicitly familial songs in her catalog. Where much of Adele's recorded output has focused on romantic love and its aftermath, "Remedy" shifts the emotional center of gravity to the bonds of family, specifically the unconditional love that a parent offers a child and a child holds for a parent. This thematic shift was noted by critics as evidence of the personal growth that the years between albums had brought, a broadening of Adele's emotional world from the romantically focused intensity of 19 and 21.

Ryan Tedder's production of "Remedy" is deliberately restrained, centering Adele's voice against a piano arrangement that swells only gradually with additional instrumental elements. This production philosophy reflected both the demands of the song's intimate subject matter and the broader trend in Adele's work toward arrangements that foreground her voice as the primary instrument. Tedder has described the songwriting process as one in which both he and Adele were moved during the writing sessions, a quality that comes through in the recording's emotional directness.

25 debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and became the fastest-selling album in UK chart history at the time of its release. It sold approximately 3.38 million copies in its first week in the United States alone, breaking the previous record held by Eminem's The Marshall Mathers LP 2. While "Remedy" was not released as a lead single, the album's extraordinary commercial performance ensured that it received significant streaming and airplay attention, particularly as listeners worked through the album's more intimate tracks after the more prominent commercial singles.

The critical reception to 25 was generally very positive, with "Remedy" consistently cited among its highlights. Reviewers praised the track's emotional authenticity and the quality of Adele's vocal performance, noting that the shift to family-themed subject matter represented a meaningful expansion of her artistic range without sacrificing the emotional directness that had made her previous work so commercially and critically successful.

Adele's broader profile in 2015 was extraordinary. The lead single from 25, "Hello," had become one of the most-viewed YouTube videos in history within weeks of its release, and the cultural anticipation surrounding the album was unprecedented for a pop artist in the streaming era. This context gave every track on 25 a level of attention that most recordings never receive, and "Remedy" benefited from this attention by reaching listeners who might otherwise have bypassed a quieter album track in favor of the more dramatic commercial singles.

The song has continued to resonate with listeners in the years since 25's release, frequently cited in discussions of Adele's catalog as one of the recordings that reveals the most about her character and her priorities beyond the romantic experiences that dominate her most commercially prominent work. Its emotional precision and the quality of its vocal performance ensure its place as a lasting entry in one of the most commercially and critically significant catalogs in contemporary popular music.