Adele's STILL the queen of heartache: 25 has few surprises - but it's a great comeback, writes ADRIAN THRILLS

Published: 20:28 EST, 19 November 2015 | Updated: 20:44 EST, 19 November 2015

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The prospect of following up her all-conquering 21 album must have been a daunting one for Adele.

Sparked by a painful break-up, that record sold 30 million copies and made the young Londoner a superstar after its release in 2011. Some even credited it with single-handedly reviving a struggling music industry.

Now, after much deliberation, the sequel is upon us. The four intervening years have seen Adele, now 27, become a mum and suffer from writer’s block.

She's back: The return finds her tapping back into a rich vein of melodic, heartfelt songwriting to produce something that will delight her huge audience.

But this return finds her tapping back into a rich vein of melodic, heartfelt songwriting to produce something that will delight her huge audience.

Like her two previous albums, the title refers to the singer’s age when these autobiographical songs were written. And, while the wounds aren’t quite as raw as before, it still concerns itself with matters of the heart.

Adele is growing up, but she clearly has some unfinished business with the man who broke her heart to inspire 21.

She also remains a superb singer with a big, soulful voice and an ability to lay bare her feelings in song. With its tight, elegant pop numbers and tear-jerking ballads, 25 strays only fleetingly from the styles that made her a star, but there’s no harm in sticking to tradition when you can sing like this.

The mood is largely wistful and nostalgic. Other than the acerbic Send My Love (To Your New Lover), there is little of the bitterness that inspired tracks like Rolling In The Deep on 21.

Adele is now singing of the need to move on, although her optimism is often tempered by a yearning for lost youth and simpler times.

This hankering for a more innocent era is at its most potent on When We Were Young, an Elton-like piano ballad co-written with relatively unknown but hugely talented Canadian musician Tobias Jesso Jr.

Powered by plangent chords, gospel backing singers and a lead vocal of sustained power from Adele, its wall of sound rises towards a tumultuous finale, with the singer reminiscing about an old flame while admitting: ‘I’m so sad at getting old, it makes me restless.’ It already has the feel of a modern standard.

She opens up again on Million Years Ago, a gentle bossa nova that harks back to the simplicity of her debut album, 19.

Moving on: She's now singing of the need to move on, but her optimism is often tempered by a yearning for lost youth and simpler times. Above, Singer Adele is seen walking in the rain in Soho, New York City on Thursday

Tinged with regret, but staying clear of self-pity, it could be her comment on the price of fame: ‘When I walk around the streets where I grew up and found my feet / They can’t look me in the eye, it’s like they’re scared of me.’

Any Adele album is going to have its share of songs that tug at the emotions, and there are times when fans might need hankies at the ready.

Underscored by synthesisers and a big orchestral arrangement, Love In The Dark is spectacular in its drama, with the queen of heartache concluding: ‘I don’t think you can save me.’

Yet there are moments in which her heavy-hearted tone becomes monotonous.

Co-written with Bruno Mars, the dreary ballad All I Ask piles on the anguish — ‘If this is my last night with you, hold me like I’m more than a friend’ — while closing track Sweetest Devotion is over-wrought.

On the whole, though, a more mature sense of perspective reigns. Conversational single Hello strikes a conciliatory note, with Adele seeking to restore her self-confidence on ‘the other side’ of a traumatic split.

The slow-burning but atmospheric I Miss You could be a love song for the singer’s long-term boyfriend Simon Konecki.

Having won seven Grammys and two Brits with 21, the singer — on BBC1 tonight on the show Adele At The BBC — doesn’t take many chances here, although the two numbers on which she does venture on to fresh musical ground are rewarding.

Send My Love (To Your New Lover), produced by Swedish svengali Max Martin, is a stripped-down acoustic track with a tropical flavour. And the dark, wonderfully nuanced River Lea, co-written with American producer Danger Mouse, gives a formidable comeback one of its best moments.