Songfacts®:

• I'll be taking flowers to the cemetery of my heart
  For all of my lovers in the present and in the dark
  Every anniversary, I'll pay respects and say I'm sorry
  
  "Strangers By Nature" is the opening track of Adele's fourth album, 30, a record inspired by her divorce from Simon Konecki. Over solemn, funereal chords, the Brit sets the tone for the album as she sings reflectively of mourning the marital breakdown with metaphorical flowers.
  
  
• Adele co-wrote the song with Childish Gambino's longtime collaborator Ludwig Göransson. After meeting the Swedish composer at a party, the English star was drawn to his dry European humor. They worked on "Strangers" after she watched the Garland biopic, Judy.
  
  Göransson's other credits include composing the Oscar-winning score for Marvel's Black Panther and co-penning Justin Timberlake and SZA's "The Other Side."
• Adele penned the song with Göransson after wondering why no one writes songs anymore like the ones Judy Garland used to sing. "I remember thinking, Why did everyone stop writing such incredible melodies and cadences and harmonies?" she told Apple Music.
• As this is shorter than most of Adele's other songs, she considered giving it to someone else to sing or sample. "You know in the old movies when someone's having a flashback or a memory to something else, and it's almost like they'll shoot a river or a pond and the water goes all ripply?" Adele asked Rolling Stone. "It reminds me of that."