Adele has secretly flown from Los Angeles back to her hometown of London and spent the past week writing and recording new material at Church Studios in North London, The Sun reported. The 38-year-old singer, who has lived in LA for roughly a decade, is working alongside producer Paul Epworth, the man who co-won an Oscar with her for the James Bond theme "Skyfall", at the storied studio where she recorded parts of her album *25*.
The move marks a sharp reversal from what Adele herself said publicly as recently as July 2024, when she told fans she had no plans for new music and wanted "a big break" after wrapping her grueling Las Vegas residency.
So what changed? Industry sources told The Sun that people close to Adele have been urging her to reconnect with London, not just personally, but musically. The goal, they say, is an album that sounds less Hollywood and more like the artist who first broke through with raw, plainspoken songs about heartbreak in South London flats.
Church Studios carries weight. The North London facility, previously owned by Eurythmics member Dave Stewart, is where the Eurythmics recorded *Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)* in 1983. Coldplay, Paul McCartney, Oasis, Mick Jagger, Florence + The Machine, Culture Club, The Streets, Tom Jones, and Adele's close friend Jack Penate have all recorded there. Epworth now owns the studio, and a source told The Sun that Adele "feels safe" there.
A second music source laid out the thinking behind the London sessions plainly:
"Her last album was well received but it was very Hollywood. People loved Adele originally because she was down to earth and relatable, so she's trying to bring that back by drawing on inspirations in her home town."
That's a frank admission from Adele's own circle. Album *30*, released in 2021, was written and recorded entirely in LA. It dealt with her divorce from charity entrepreneur Simon Konecki. The record sold 261,000 copies in its first week, the fastest-selling album in four years at the time, but the unnamed source's characterization of it as "very Hollywood" suggests the people around Adele believe the LA chapter ran its creative course.
Adele has tried to keep her London visit quiet, but she hasn't been invisible. Nine days before The Sun's report, she was photographed arriving at actor Aaron Taylor-Johnson's 36th birthday party. On Thursday night she turned up at O2 Academy Brixton for a Lola Young concert, and Young shared a selfie of the two together. Fans also claimed Adele was in the audience at a *Romeo & Juliet* production in London's West End on Friday night, though that sighting has not been independently confirmed.
A source described the schedule in concrete terms:
"She was in and out of sessions last week and will be back in there this week, but she is keeping a low profile while she is here."
The same source said Adele is spending "at least a fortnight" in London for the writing and recording sessions.
Adding intrigue: Justin Vernon, the American singer-songwriter behind indie folk act Bon Iver, was photographed outside Church Studios last Wednesday. Singer Gracie Abrams appeared to be shooting a music video outside the facility at the same time. Whether either artist is working with Adele is unknown. But the Vernon sighting is notable. In 2016, Adele posted on Twitter that "Bon Iver's music is one of the true loves of my life. Every. Single. Time."
A collaboration is speculation at this point. But the fact that Vernon showed up at the same studio during the same window Adele was recording there is, at minimum, an interesting coincidence.
Adele's post-*30* schedule has been relentless. She played two sell-out shows at Hyde Park in London, then launched a two-year "Weekends With Adele" residency in Las Vegas, followed by a ten-night run at a purpose-built stadium in Munich. By the time she wrapped those commitments, she sounded spent.
In July 2024, she was blunt:
"I don't have any plans for new music at all. I want a big break after all this and I think I want to do other creative things just for a little while."
Those "other creative things" materialized quickly. In February, Adele flew to Rome to film her acting debut in director Tom Ford's upcoming historical drama *Cry To Heaven*, based on Anne Rice's 1982 novel. She spent several weeks on set alongside Colin Firth, Julianne Moore, Nicholas Hoult, and Thandiwe Newton. Two months after the filming wrapped, The Sun revealed Adele was being courted to record a single for the film's soundtrack.
Now she's back in a recording booth, not in LA, but in London.
Adele's commercial track record is almost impossible to overstate. She has won 16 Grammys. Album *21* sold 57 million copies worldwide. She and partner Rich Paul paid £47 million for Sylvester Stallone's former California home in 2022. She is, by any measure, one of the biggest recording artists alive.
That scale creates its own pressure. A music insider told The Sun that Adele is well aware of it:
"Adele feels the pressure with her music and won't rush anything out if it's not up to scratch with her back catalogue. She has been writing for a while now but she is taking her time with it. She knows there are always grand expectations and she is determined to only return when the music is the best it can be."
The question of what the next album will be called remains open. Adele's four studio albums, *19* (2008), *21*, *25* (2015), and *30* (2021), have each been named for her age when she wrote them. Around the time of *25*, she said she thought it would be her "last age one." By *30*, she had reversed course, saying she could change her mind and that "the age thing is a bloody good idea."
Whether the next record will be called *38*, or something else entirely, is anyone's guess.
Adele was born in Tottenham, North London, and later lived in Brixton and West Norwood in South London. The River Lea, which runs through Tottenham, featured in the lyrics on *25*. She has spoken openly about missing London while acknowledging why LA suits her daily life. In an interview around the same time as her final Carpool Karaoke appearance with James Corden, she described the trade-offs:
"I really miss London, but I miss the London from before all of this happened in my life."
She also cited practical reasons for staying in California, the weather helps with seasonal depression, the social culture revolves around private gatherings rather than public outings, and her son's school has given her "great mum friends."
But the sources around her are making a creative argument, not a lifestyle one. The case they're laying out is simple: the best Adele music came from a woman rooted in a specific place, singing about specific feelings, in a voice that didn't sound like it belonged to someone living in a mansion once owned by Rocky Balboa's creator.
Several important details remain unclear. Adele herself has not publicly confirmed the new recording sessions. All reporting relies on unnamed sources. No release date, album title, or label details have surfaced. The nature of any involvement by Justin Vernon or Gracie Abrams is unconfirmed. And the timeline for the *Cry To Heaven* soundtrack single, if it happens at all, is unresolved.
A third unnamed source described the London return as an effort to develop "a more English-sounding album," but whether that ambition survives the full recording process is unknowable at this stage.
What is clear is that Adele's "big break" lasted less than a year. She's back in the booth, back in London, and, if her circle is to be believed, trying to find the voice that made 57 million people buy a single album.
Sometimes the best thing a global superstar can do is go home and remember who she was before the world got loud.
