It is a torch song and ballad which places emphasis on Adele's vocals, set over progressively louder-growing piano instrumentation.

She performed the song at the 23rd NRJ Music Awards, on her television specials, and at the concert residency Weekends with Adele.

Artists including Kanye West, Chloe Bailey, and Keith Urban sang cover versions of it.

It was released as the lead single from the album and reached number one in 36 countries, and its music video broke the Vevo record for most single-day views.

[7][8] These conversations inspired Adele's return to the studio, and the album took shape as a body of work that would explain to her son why she left his father.

Tom Elmhirst helmed the song's mixing at Electric Lady Studios in New York, and Randy Merrill handled mastering at Sterling Sound in New Jersey.

[19] In the chorus, Adele delivers the song title in elongated vocal runs and stretches the "e" sound through eight different musical notes.

[15] Neil McCormick of The Daily Telegraph described the song as "effectively, a huge, abject, shame- and excuse-filled apology".

The black-and-white clip played an instrumental track and depicted Adele putting a cassette into the tape deck of a truck.

[43] In October 2021, Ocado noted a 26 percent increase in tissue sales in the United Kingdom and connected this to the release of "Easy on Me", along with the cool weather: "We also suspect Adele's new song about heartbreak may have also had something to do with it.

McCormick thought the song was a daring return for Adele and exemplified the sheer crux of "what music is, and why it means so much to us".

[19] Fiona Sturges of i believed it is wholehearted, anthemic, and places emphasis on Adele's voice, but it has a "slightly over-produced sheen" which reduces its sadness.

[46] Likewise, The Times' Will Hodgkinson thought "Easy on Me" was fine and seasoned but "a sheen of thoroughly American professionalism" prevented its emotional resonance.

[17] Billboard's Jason Lipshutz likened several elements of "Easy on Me" to prior Adele songs but thought it was distinguished by its different lyrical theme.

[45] NME's Nick Levine thought the song delivered to the high expectations due to her prowess in communicating unvarnished emotion through her vocals and lyricism.

[50] Writing for Rolling Stone, Rob Sheffield thought she sang with more panache and delicacy but did not eschew "the primal firepower" that famed her.

[53] PopMatters's Peter Piatkowski stated that with her usual pristine performance, she exudes the immense sorrow she experiences and molds her great and pliable voice.

Chris Willman of Variety believed that the theme of asking for forgiveness strayed from Adele's previous releases, portraying her as "the possible offendee, not the offended".

[79] "Easy on Me" debuted at number 195 on the Billboard Global 200 with just five hours of tracking and became Adele's first song to reach the chart's summit the following week.

[87] In its fourteenth week, "Easy on Me" became the first song to surpass 100 million in radio reach since the Weeknd's "Blinding Lights" (2019) one and a half year earlier.

[97] Elsewhere, "Easy on Me" reached number one in Austria,[98] Belgium,[99] Costa Rica,[100] Croatia,[101] Czech Republic,[102] Denmark,[103] Germany,[104] Iceland,[105] Ireland,[106] Israel,[107] Italy,[108] Lithuania,[109] Malaysia,[110] the Netherlands,[111] New Zealand,[112] Norway,[113] Singapore,[114] Slovakia,[115] South Africa,[116] Sweden,[117] and Switzerland.

The latter was filmed in the same house as "Hello", at the Chemin Jordan and Domaine Dumont Chapelle Ste-Agnès in Sutton, Quebec, on 15 and 16 September 2021.

[135][136] She talks with someone on a mobile phone[137][138] and inserts a cassette into the tape deck of a furniture truck, which plays "Easy on Me".

[46][139] Adele mourns the end of her own marriage while driving away and spectating a separate couple's engagement celebration as several pages of sheet music fly out of the car's windows.

[136][140] Several critics thought it referenced other Adele music videos, including "Hello", "Rolling in the Deep" (2010), and "Chasing Pavements" (2008).

[140] BBC News' Mark Savage opined that the transition from black and white to colours represented "the sound of a woman who has dismantled her entire world, realising that she needn't feel guilty for putting herself first".

Reviewing the show on 18 November 2022, The New York Times' Lindsay Zoladz believed Adele seemed nervous and "relied a bit too heavily on encouraging the crowd to sing her lyrics", and Harper's Bazaar's Bianca Betancourt thought she "appeared visibly emotional" before it.

Kanye West and the Sunday Service Choir performed a cover with changed lyrics, as a tribute to Virgil Abloh after he died on 28 November 2021.

[159] Keith Urban introduced his acoustic guitar cover of the song during a March 2022 show: "I would like to make a special dedication tonight, to somebody I just absolutely adore as a performer, as a songwriter, a trailblazer, [...] We love you Adele, oh yes we do.

"[160][161] In July 2023, 13-year-old musician Nandi Bushell shared her cover of it; she noted in the caption that it was her first video singing and playing piano simultaneously.