Hearing several reviews of Adeles 30 (how many people needed to stream it to get to #1) it does seem this is just using the current zeitgeist of over-sharing/navel-gazing your life story, (kinda like meghan), I'd say derivative too when I compare song excerpts I heard to lana del ray, Morissette, Amy ...
imagery and angst in adele is bland.
Modern solo "artists" are all the same, slap of lots of phoney over emoting, often with a whiny mewling voice and wait for the critics to call you "brave", social media to fawn, and the money to roll in, it's the perfect recipe to sell to a generation that thinks crying and emoting is the same as talent. Adele isn't fit to be mentioned isn the same breath as Amy, or Alanis Morrisette, or Tracy Chapman.
Same as Ed Sheeran who pould have been busking if he's been around in the 90s, she's just fortunate to be around when music is so mediocre, bland and corporate.