On May 4th, the day Adele turned 26, the multi-platinum singer tweeted, “Bye bye 25… See you again later in the year.” The tweet seemed to suggest that Adele’s much-anticipated follow-up to the Album of the Year Grammy-winning 21 would be arriving at some point in 2014. However, according to the New York Times, that is no longer the case. A financial report from Adele’s label XL Recordings reveals that there are no plans to drop an album from the “Rolling in the Deep” singer in 2014.
The good news is that XL made $15 million net profit this year, but further down in the report the label sent to regulators today, they added this sobering note: “There will not be a further new release by Adele during 2014 and consequently there will be a fall in XL’s turnover and profits. Nevertheless, the directors are confident that by pursuing management policies…XL will continue to achieve success with other artists.” In the report, the label note that the singer’s back catalogue accounted for a “significant proportion of the sales and profit” during 2013.
21 sold more than 25 million copies worldwide, so the quiet revelation that 2014 will be Adele-less comes as an equally disappointing update to both XL’s distributor Columbia Records and the singer’s fans.
In a holiday season set to feature big album releases from Taylor Swift, Nicki Minaj, Pink Floyd, Foo Fighters and possibly Kendrick Lamar, Adele’s new LP was expected to be the marquee event and a dire shot in the arm for a music industry that has endured record low sales this year. However, as we enter the fourth quarter of 2014, Adele hadn’t made any announcements – she hasn’t even tweeted since July – or rolled out any new singles, which implied that the tentatively titled 25 might have to wait until 26.