She likes to keep fans guessing as to when exactly she will end her five-year hiatus, but Adele’s musical return is certainly gathering pace. Showing off her seven-stone weight loss while hosting US show Saturday Night Live in the autumn, the British powerhouse warned fans that a follow-up to 2015’s 25 wouldn’t be until next year at the earliest.

But now Pearl Jam drummer Matt Chamberlain has suggested Adele’s ‘powerful and emotive’ comeback is closer than she makes out after spending this week in the studio with her. He said the 32-year-old, who bounces between Los Angeles and London, sounds as mesmerising as ever.

Describing what he witnessed at her recording session, the 53-year-old session musician said: ‘I just got to work on some new music for Adele, and to hear that voice in my headphones was getting me chills. ‘It was just so powerful and emotive.

You know her voice, but to be across the room from somebody doing that, it’s just insane. ‘You hear it on the radio and you go, “Yeah, it’s really good”, but to be in the room with these people and feel that energy, it’s just so heavy.’

Letting slip as to where Adele is with her fourth album, he spilled: ‘She’s writing some new material with her songwriter Rick Nowels. ‘She wanted to do it with some drums and so we just put our masks on, she was in the room — yeah, holy s***.’

Adele recently insisted ‘I honestly have no idea’ as to when she would release something. And after refusing to tease any music during her SNL stint in October, or play a snippet of her record, she posted: ‘I’m going back to my cave now to be the (single) cat lady that I am! Peace out till next year.’ The divorced mother-of-one shared the relationship status in her farewell after she was seen on dates with 38-year-old London grime star Skepta.