InstagramThis is what happens when an album you have been breathlessly anticipating finally hits your iTunes/CD player. All you want to do is talk about it, tweet about it and approach strangers on the street while carrying the album shouting, "have you heard the good word from our savior Adele?!"
That's normal. That's expected. So why are people so pissed off when they see the lyrics and song snippets from 25 all over social media?
You can spoil a shocking death on a TV show. You can certainly spoil a movie ending. That's been true long before Darth Vader first told Luke Skywalker, "Hey, bro. I'm your daddy. So, let's Dark Side it together."*
*That was almost definitely the line.
But can you truly spoil an album? Even if you see lyrics to a song on Twitter and even if you accidentally played a 30 second preview for "Send My Love (To Your New Lover)," does that really ruin the entire record before you even press play?
Even if you say, "yes, damn it!" Your answer should really be, "no." Because no one can spoil how you will feel when you first listen to Adele's new material. No one can take away the moment you realize that this song is the one you think is your favorite. No one can take away the moment you realize that this song is the one you know is your favorite. And no one can possibly ruin you belting out "Sweetest Devotion" when you're driving home from work.
So perhaps the answer here is: no one can spoil an album for you if you don't let them. Yes, you can read lyrics ahead of time and we completely understand if someone thinks listening to a snippet of a song before hearing the whole thing in its entirety is tainting the experience. But if your old college roommate's cousin posts the lyrics to her favorite song on Facebook, will it really change how you feel about that song?
If someone told you the ending to Breaking Bad before you started binge watching it, it could certainly alter how you view the series. You know how it ends, so every scene and every character arc now carries a different meaning. And if you know the surprise twist in The Usual Suspects, you won't keep your eyes off Kevin Spacey for the entire film and you might miss other remarkable moments. Those types of spoilers change how you watch and experience something.
But just because you know that Adele is going to wreck your emotions with lyrics like "I want you to be my keeper / but not if you are so reckless," that doesn't mean that you won't feel the power and precision behind Adele's soulful voice. And that certainly doesn't mean you will enjoy 25 any differently.
Music is such a personal medium. It always has been. And that means that those songs will sound different to every single human on this planet. Yes, they'll all sound amazing because of Adele's insane vocals. But you will not experience that album in the same way as the stranger sitting next to you on the subway. Maybe she's going through a breakup, or maybe she's finally found someone to love. Either way, 25 will speak to her in a completely different way. And that's what makes music so damn special.
So while you can know the words ahead of time, you cannot know the impact a certain song, a certain lyric or even a certain shift in melody will have on you. There are just some things that can never be spoiled.