Hello! I've been trying to sort out an organized way to put together an album review, so we are going to give that a try today (If there is anything you want touched on in the future, just let me know in the comments!).
It is no secret how much I love all things British, particularly their music. I'm quite excited about their most recent export, Sam Smith. Hopefully, you've noticed him on the iTunes top 10 charts where his songs have been living lately (The longest resident being "Stay With Me"). All over the place, he is being called the male version of Adele which certainly peaked my interest. Then, he performed "Money On My Mind" with Taylor Swift when she was in London for her Red Tour, and I got more interested. Finally, his song "Nirvana" was my YouTube ad maybe 50 times in one week. To my surprise, I loved it more every time. Along with most of the television audience, I was stunned by his SNL performances. It is so evident that he just exudes talent. I've been counting down the days to this album release since that performance, so I was so excited to get finally my hands on his debut, In The Lonely Hour. I picked up the Target Deluxe Edition which comes with 5 extra tracks including LaLaLa, an acoustic version of Latch, and a version of Stay with Me featuring Mary J. Blige (full track list below). You can pick that up here (It's currently on sale, so now is a great time). Let's break this thing down.
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Track Listing:
1. Money On My Mind
2. Good Thing
3. Stay With Me
4. Leave Your Lover
5. I'm Not The Only One
6. I've Told You Now
7. Like I Can
8. Life Support
9. Not In That Way
10. Lay Me Down
11. Restart
12. Latch (Acoustic)
13. LaLaLa
14. Reminds Me Of You
15. Stay With Me (feat. Mary J. Blige)
16. In The Lonely Hour (Acoustic)
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For fans of: Adele, Whitney Houston
Singles: Lay Me Down, Money on My Mind, Stay With Me, and Leave Your Lover
Personal Favorites: Latch (Acoustic), Not In That Way, I'm Not The Only One, and all of the singles
Tracks I Skip: I've Told You Now, Restart, and Life Support sometimes
Anything disappointing: I've been raving about how great of a song Nirvana is on Twitter since February. It also made an appearance in my March Favorites, so I was sad to see that it wasn't included on this album. In interviews, he has said he wanted this to be a separate entity from his Nirvana - EP which I totally understand. That doesn't mean I stopped wishing for it. If you haven't heard that one, go check it out. Like I said up top, it is what got me truly hooked on him in the first place.
Overall: This album is full of heartfelt songs that are incredibly relatable. They are all delivered beautifully and with an emotional honesty felt in his voice. He is top billed as the songwriter on every track of this album, so these songs are coming from a very real place. For me, it makes it much easier to connect to him as a human being because he is putting himself out there. Also, I really respect that he had the guts to write every song on his first album. You really don't see a lot of that from people who are making as big of hits as he is.
If you like a good car singing session like I do, this is a great one to pick up. Same goes for if you love a guy with an impressive falsetto range, you can't miss this one. All in all, it is a very solid debut, and I hope to hear a lot from him in the future. In the best way, In The Lonely Hour feels like Sam Smith is starting a Lonely Hearts Club, and I will be the very first one to join.
What upcoming albums are you most excited about?
P.S. Come back next week for my thoughts on X from Ed Sheeran!
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