… It’s about a guy and that’s what I wanted people to know-I want to be clear that that’s what it’s about.”Ī night of casual sex on the hit single ” Stay With Me” isn’t exactly the end goal for Smith, but he still uses it to soothe his soul (“Guess it’s true, I’m not very good at a one-night stand/ … This ain’t love, it’s clear to see/But darling, stay with me/ … And deep down I know this never works/but you can lay with me so it doesn’t hurt”).

So bare does Smith lay his soul, in fact, that by the end of the album I found myself wanting to look away from his heartsick agony out of a basic sense of decency and dignity.Ĭulturally and morally complicating this sweeping sadness is the fact that in the weeks leading up to the album’s release, Smith addressed and confirmed rumors regarding his sexual orientation, telling, “ In the Lonely Hour is about a guy that I fell in love with last year, and he didn’t love me back. On the other nine, this much-ballyhooed soul singer (whose fragile, plaintive falsetto eerily echoes that of Simply Red frontman Mike Hucknall) autobiographically chronicles his utter relational and personal devastation. Only one song here isn’t about that topic.

In this collection of emotionally raw songs about rejection, the 22-year-old Briton makes quite a convincing play for becoming the Patron Saint of Unrequited Love. But it could just have easily been called It’s a Sad, Sad, Sad, Sad World. Sam Smith’s debut album is titled In the Lonely Hour.

In the lonely hour sam smith song