There’s self-love on Sam Smith’s new dance album – but there’s no … – iNews
Pop music has, for the past five years or so, become fixated on self-love. A reflection of the wellness trends perpetuated by social media, empowering, self-reliance anthems are two a penny these days, and Sam Smith has made an album that takes this sense of worth to the next level, built around their efforts to find a peace in themselves and their relationships.
Sam Smith of yore was a straight-laced balladeer in trim Topman suits, whom you might expect to pop up on The X Factor and Graham Norton. They were incredibly successful straight out of the gate: they won the BBC Sound Of poll in 2014, three Brits and then, two years later, an Oscar for their Bond theme “Writing’s on the Wall”.
Gloria, their fourth album, is a world away from their 2014 debut. Full of understated club bangers and that buttery voice, it is full of religious motifs and experiments with different vocal styles. Not all are entirely successful, but this break from the formulaic is to be admired.
In 2014, Smith came out as gay and then in 2017 as genderqueer. Their personal style has evolved from those neutral suits into, on a recent SNL performance, a huge, neon pink dress that suggests the Cheshire Cat met a sad end. On album opener “Love Me More”, they sing of “learning how to love me more” as a strutting beat comes in and funny little vocal hits pop up behind the simple melody line. It’s a very likeable song, although some of the lyrics lack depth.
I prefer the songs where Smith is being straight with a lover: on “No God” they struggle to be heard by a partner who refuses to consider any point of view other than their own: “Want to meet you halfway, you just want to fight” – a moment we’ve all experienced I’m sure.
They refuse to be dumped on “Lose You”, which wouldn’t sound entirely out of place on Love Island, while the delightfully irate “I’m Not Here To Make Friends” was written about the people who would arrange dates with Smith simply because they are famous and not with any actual romantic intention. That song seems to interpolate a bit of Sisqo’s “Thong Song” and has a confusingly shouty chorus: Smith seems keen to yell, which is a shame when their voice is so gorgeous and the shouted vocals sound so strained.
More on Album Reviews
Sprinkled throughout are interludes made of vintage recordings discussing the pain and loneliness that can come with homosexuality, which lends weight to Smith’s songs about finding compassion for themself: you do wonder if perhaps some of the songs should have done this heavy lifting.
The inescapably deranged TikTok catnip of “Unholy” is hilariously placed before an acoustic ballad called “How To Cry”, which is, as you might expect, an emotional howl quite at odds with the swaggering filth of “Unholy”. The other collaborations are very good: Jessie Reyez and Koffee are the perfect friction to Smith’s super-smooth melody lines on the sappy “Perfect” and the destined-for-the-Capital-FM-playlist “Gimme”.
There is no song to wince at on Gloria – it is full of perfectly serviceable tracks with admirable and heartfelt messages. What is missing is euphoria. The joy of loving yourself without needing anything from anyone else comes with that release, that freedom: there is no real release on this record, no moment that breaks free of the loping, ultra-cool beats. Without that, Gloria languishes.
Songs to stream: “Gimme”, “I’m Not Here To Make Friends”, “No God”