My Little Love

The song incorporates voice notes of Adele's conversations with her son as she explains the effects of her divorce on his life and pleads for his understanding and forgiveness.

[3][4] These 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.

[3] Adele wrote "My Little Love" with Greg Kurstin, who had produced three songs for her third studio album, 25 (2015) – "Hello", "Million Years Ago", and "Water Under the Bridge".

She conceived "My Little Love" in a studio the following day and decided to incorporate voice notes of the conversation in the song, inspired by Tyler, the Creator and Skepta.

David Campbell arranged and conducted the strings, which were recorded at the EastWood Scoring Stage in Burbank, California.

Tom Elmhirst mixed the song at Electric Lady Studios in New York City, and Randy Merrill mastered it at Sterling Sound in Edgewater, New Jersey.

[21][22] The song employs an arpeggiated late-night bar piano chord progression and a lightly oscillating funk bassline.

[24] Adele delivers vocals in a low register, which Annabel Nugent of The Independent considered analogous to "smoke pluming from a lit cigarette perched on an ashtray".

[25] Several critics likened "My Little Love" to the work of Marvin Gaye;[b] Vogue's Abby Aguirre highlighted its elements—"sexy '70s groove, heavy strings, heavier lyrics",[3] and NPR's Nate Chinen believed the similarity was in "the stylistic legacy of the song—down to the gently tripping melisma that concludes each line in the verse".

[26] AllMusic's Neil Z. Yeung believed the "smoky R&B production" recalls "early-2000s Alicia Keys", and Mikael Wood of the Los Angeles Times described it as "a lush soul jam with echoes of classic Isaac Hayes".

Club's Gabrielle Sanchez observed a "push and pull [...] of a mother needing her son for support while feeling guilty about wearing these emotions on her sleeve for him to see",[31] and PopMatters's Peter Piatkowski thought "the discomfort grows as the emotional baggage depicted in the lyrics threaten to collapse whatever dam is holding Adele in".

[e] Alexis Petridis of The Guardian described it as "bold no-holds barred wound-showing" akin to John Lennon's song "Mother" (1970).

[39] Pitchfork's Jill Mapes believed it was "Adele's version of rock bottom",[38] and DIY's Emma Swann called it a "gut-wrenching climax".

[g] Writing for Slant Magazine, Eric Mason found Adele's affirmation of her love for her son brought forth a more honest sense of sadness than her previous heartbreak-themed songs.