Sam Smith – The Thrill Of It All (Capitol)

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The 13th Floor’s Sam Smith reviews Sam Smith…

British pop sensation and my own personal namesake Sam Smith is back after a three break with his second studio album The Thrill of It All. Smith emerged on the scene in 2014, taking the world by storm with his debut In the Lonely Hour and hit songs such as Stay with Me which won the record and song of the year at the 2015 Grammys.

The type of soul-pop that Smith and the likes of Adele produce is immensely popular and sells truckloads of records. However, I have always found them to be amazing singers live who release quite stale records. My main criticism is their music tends to be over-produced, while some of the songs lack the lyrical prowess and energy that good pop songs tend to have, think the best work released by Prince and Michael Jackson. With this in mind, I came into Smith’s new album with a touch of caution, hoping more than anything that he would have shown some musical evolution in the studio in three years.

The Thrill of It All kicks off with the album’s first single Too Good At Goodbyes. This for mine is one of the best songs Smith has released, with its gospel-influenced sound allowing his vocal prowess to shine. It starts slowly as a mid-tempo ballad before building into this big gospel track complete with choir-like backing vocals. A great start to the album that left me hoping for more of the same.

Unfortunately, though, the next track, Say It First, failed to continue the strong start. This one was a typical MOR pop ballad which threatened to build throughout before ultimately falling flat. This is a problem I often have of these big pop singers is that they struggle to retain my attention for a whole album, with this underwhelming track a case in point. Thankfully this little blip in proceedings is followed by two great soul tracks, the retro soul of One Last Song with its horns and Motown-esque backing vocals, and the contemporary soul ballad Midnight Train, a song that is already courting controversy as being a rip off Radiohead’s Creep. I can’t see it myself.

The middle section of the album begins with Burning, another ballad that fails to get out of first gear despite Smith showing off his strong range. This is swiftly followed by Him, no doubt a breakup song on what is a breakup album, with religious imagery “holy father, judge my sins” and more rousing gospel backing vocals. The mid-tempo retro soul then returns on Baby, You Make Me Cry, you get the feeling on these songs Smith is channeling his great influence Amy Winehouse and by in large to good effect, with the soul tracks definitely coming across more effective than the mellow ballads.

The album comes to its conclusion with No Peace, a largely forgettable duet with American singer YEBBA, the very bland ballad Palace, why are there so many of these? And, finally, album closer Pray, the second single released and what is one of the most gospel sounding songs Smith has put out.

All up, The Thrill of It All contains flashes of brilliance but lacks consistency across the ten songs. Just when you think Smith could be on a run of really good songs another stale middle of the road pop ballad emerges to disrupt the flow of the album and indeed the listening experience. The retro and gospel sounding songs stood out head and shoulders above these ballads which suffered from bland production and songwriting.  Maybe this is what happens when you have big songwriting teams who are ultimately specialists in writing these conservative types of songs for pop stars the world over.

On the evidence of this album, there is again no doubting Smith’s singing ability, he is one of the best around. It’s just the uninspiring production and songwriting on here that has got in the way of him making a truly great pop album, while at the same time masking this wonderful voice of his. Three years on from In The Lonely Hour he still has the voice, it’s just the musical evolution and expansion of his sound that he is still searching for.

Sam Smith

The 13th Floor
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