Sam Smith was “a crooner for five years,” the singer said recently, suggesting that all those grand ballads, including the Oscar-winning Bond theme Writing’s On the Wall, no longer thrill the creator of the double-platinum The Thrill of It All and Grammy-winning In the Lonely Hour.
They’ve undergone some big changes before album three, most notably coming out as non-binary and adopting neutral pronouns. Confusion as well as praise has followed. “If you wanna judge me then go and load the gun/I’ve done nothing wrong, I’m young,” they sing on the opening song, a beautiful a cappella defence of a life that isn’t finished exploring identity.
This collection has had a long gestation. There have been Covid-related delays and a title change from the potentially insensitive To Die For. Eight previously released singles going all the way back to the summer of 2018 are present, but it’s the earliest one, the slinky disco of the Calvin Harris collaboration Promises, that sets the overall tone.
As ever, they’re having love life trouble, but now the heartbreak is happening on the dancefloor. Dance (‘Til You Love Someone Else) is the liveliest moment, Smith’s extraordinary falsetto perfectly suited to a thudding house beat and frantic strings.
The title track, a Labrinth duet, is a winner, starting out like yet another piano weep-along until a marvellous horn fanfare muscles in. On So Serious, rather than wallowing, they counter that depressive disposition with sprightly synths and finger-clicks. It turns out that this voice, unbeatable at expressing sadness, can do a lot more.
