sam smith in the lonely hour album release date

From gospel-influenced tracks like “Stay With Me” to jazzy numbers such as “I’m Not The Only One,” it is clear that Sam not only has pipes of gold but knows how to use them as well. The album’s team of producers gives Smith a mostly blank canvas to showcase his vocals, providing room for soaring riffs over fingerpicked guitars on “Not in That Way” and “Leave Your Lover.” But neither leaves as indelible a mark as Smith’s lost love has left on his heart.While the album, for the most part, is minimalist in its musical arrangement, it is Sam’s virtuosic voice that is purposefully made the focal instrument. Elsewhere, though he reaches for his upper register with the same eagerness that he grasps for love, his emo hopelessness is a flood drowning everything in sight.

He rolls deepest on the gospel-powered “Stay With Me” – a spare track with a simple arrangement that matches its bare plea – and “Like I Can,” a blissful groove that packs a Seventies rock-radio punch.

But while the album flirts with a few radiant moments, Smith’s endless yearning isn’t wrapped in as many irresistible packages. Smith – a gifted blue-eyed-soulster with Barry Gibb’s flexible falsetto and Mark Ronson’s ear for throwback grooves – got noticed last year for his vocals on house duo Disclosure’s slow jam “Latch.” With In the Lonely Hour‘s orchestral flourishes and focus on a single unrealized affair, it seems the baby-faced singer is being positioned as a male Adele.

Where do lonely hearts go? British singer Sam Smith, 21, has written a dissertation on the question with his debut LP.

Sam smith in the lonely hour album release date