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Sam Smith’s fourth album, Gloria, opens with the form of music we’ve come to expect from the British singer-songwriter: “Love Me More” is a gospel-inflected ballad celebrating the ability of self-acceptance. But after that, Smith goes off script. “I wanted it to be a patchwork of pop, it’s something that I used to be really enthusiastic about,” they tell Apple Music. “I need to be flipping from genre to genre to genre to genre.” Gloria, then, brings us sensual R&B, dazzling dance floor moments (“Lose You” is maybe Smith’s best sad banger yet), twisting hyperpop, a dancehall-indebted earworm, and even choral music, with embraces of sex, the ability of community, and queer joy and history along the best way. “My aim with this record was to make certain there just isn’t one song on this album that I don’t love,” adds Smith. “I’ve put a lot into this record when it comes to the production and the time. I became obsessed. I lived contained in the music. I’ve never worked that arduous before.”
There’s a confidence present that almost all artists reach a couple of albums deep, nevertheless it’s greater than just the gains of experience you may hear here. Made between Suffolk, LA, and Jamaica, Gloria is an album of rebel, liberation, and letting go of the past, as one among modern pop’s biggest voices unveils their most assured music—and self—yet. “I don’t need to sound cheesy, but Gloria for me is like when a butterfly leaves a cocoon,” says Smith. “That’s what I wanted this record to feel like all over. I wanted there to be strength inside each song. I feel like my true artist self has arrived in a way.” Read on as Smith delves deep into every track on Gloria, and opens up in regards to the experience of playing the Royal Albert Hall in London in 2022, heard on this special Apple Music Edition.
“Love Me More”
“I knew I wanted to write down a song that said how I used to be feeling. I find the entire self-love thing quite cringey. Self-love sometimes looks like a destination; with self-acceptance, day by day I even have to try to accept myself and show myself love. That is what I used to be attempting to convey on this song. I began this album like my old music. ‘Love Me More’ is the last opportunity I used to be giving my older fans to come back into this next stage with me. It is a song written for my fans, and each song after it’s written for me.”
“No God”
“This comes from a private story about someone in my life who I’ve lost to drastic opinions. But as me, [songwriters and producers] Jimmy [Napes] and Stargate were writing it, it became a rhetoric on a certain variety of person with a god complex. It’s in regards to the ignoring of a human being and allowing someone’s drastic politics to get in the best way of caring for another person. The magic of this song got here from the production: the live playing, the backing vocals. We just picked away at it until it sounded perfect. To me, it sounds super expensive.”
“Hurting Interlude”
“I discovered this amazing piece: a news anchor speaking on the first-ever Gay Pride in Recent York. What he says on this interlude broke my heart and took me back to ‘Lose You,’ a song written a few lesbian friend who had her first queer relationship with a lady. Someone’s first heartbreak as a queer person may be very intense due to what we do undergo on the subject of love. I felt prefer it was the proper quote before ‘Lose You.’”
“Lose You”
“As a queer community, we love our sad dance songs. With this album, you could possibly dedicate every song to a pop diva of mine. ‘Love Me More’ could be Whitney, ‘No God’ could be Brandy, and ‘Lose You’ could be Robyn or George Michael. I wrote this song with a few of the most amazing pop writers and it felt like a mastering of a beautifully formed pop song. The production wasn’t taking me to Berlin, though, and I needed it to take me to a German gay club. The little things we did towards the tip of this song really took it there—it gives me this really Euro, unashamed, gay, chic feel. It’s drama, drama, drama.”
“Perfect” (feat. Jessie Reyez)
“That is where sex starts to come back into the record. I feel like I’ve been a bit desexualized during my profession, and I used to be very young after I began. Being 20 years old and moving onstage in the best way I might in a gay bar was petrifying. Jessie really taught me to be brave: I might say things to her within the studio and he or she wouldn’t laugh or feel uncomfortable. The entire concept of the song is saying, ‘I’m a hot mess,’ and feeling yourself in a very imperfect way. This song is the Rihanna moment—we worked with Stargate on it, who worked on Rated R, one among my favorite Rihanna records. Stargate got hold of Nuno Bettencourt, who does guitar solos on Rated R, and he just ripped all around the song—I adore it a lot.”
“Unholy” [with Kim Petras] “We were in Jamaica and [producer] Omer Fedi was fucking around on the guitar and playing this scale, which I began singing to. Everyone within the room was really confused; they didn’t know in the event that they liked it or not. I had someone on my mind who was pissing me off and I just needed to get it out. After we got back, everyone liked the song but said, ‘This just isn’t on brand.’ However it kept prodding at me. I said all the pieces I needed to in the primary verse, and that’s when Kim got here into the image. There have been about eight guys within the studio who were attempting to push Kim’s verse in a single direction. We spent all day doing it that way, but then something in my gut said, ‘That is shit.’ There’s a certain humor that only a queer person can understand because we’ve been through it and we live it. And that’s what the verse needed. We would have liked to tease the person, we wanted to make him a ‘Balenciaga daddy.’ That is essentially the most powerful a part of the album and it’s essentially the most powerful piece of music I’ve ever been a component of. It’s like an exorcism.”
“Methods to Cry”
“That is in regards to the same person ‘Unholy’ is about. I wanted that breath, but I also only wanted one among these moments, because this isn’t the record for super organic, stripped music. In ‘Unholy’ I’m laughing and taking the piss. But at the center of that emotion is a really sad story. It’s also a few relationship I used to be in, and about how I believe being an emotional person is such a powerful characteristic. I actually do consider it’s a superpower. So it’s a love letter to me.”
“Six Shots”
“It’s a paragraph change—after ‘Methods to Cry,’ that is the pre-drinks to an evening. But they’re intense pre-drinks, because we start having sex. That is the primary proper sex song I wrote—I just felt really freed by it. On the time, I used to be insanely single and that’s where the lyric ‘There’s no loving me’ comes from. I used to be so single that I used to be almost taken. I wasn’t open to like.”
“Gimme” (feat. Koffee and Jessie Reyez)
“I’m obsessive about this song—it’s possibly my favorite on the album. It’s essentially the most sexually intense lyrics I’ve ever written, and the verse lyric is definitely filthy! The song is essentially about wanting the dick a lot you may cry. I really like dancehall music and have tried over and over to write down songs which have a dancehall feel. I needed to be in Jamaica to do it in a way where it felt authentic, and I’m so proud that ‘Gimme’ did that. Like plenty of the record, this song is about sharing the moment—I didn’t need to be within the song an excessive amount of.”
“Dorothy’s Interlude”
“The opening quote is Divine, which is just pure sass and fabulousness. Next is Judy Garland—there are such a lot of queer connotations with Judy, namely the famous myth that when she died, everyone congregated in Recent York at Stonewall and the riots began the identical night. Then after that you just’ve got Sylvia Rivera. It’s quite a harrowing speech at Gay Pride in Recent York, talking about all the awful things which are happening within the homeless hospitals to trans people, and her own community of gay men were booing her onstage. After that it goes into RuPaul saying probably the most incredible sayings we’ve on the market. This interlude goes through the ages.”
“I’m Not Here to Make Friends”
“This song was made with Calvin Harris, Stargate, me, and Jessie Reyez. It was a joy to make. I went on a date the night before and I used to be just so sick of happening dates where people treated me like a friend or simply wanted to fulfill me because I’m Sam Smith. Although the song has nothing to do with it, the song title can be an attitude and spirit on the record that I even have: I’m done attempting to please people now.”
“Gloria”
“The sound of this song is probably the most beautiful sounds I’ve ever created. And the explanation I believe it’s one among my favorite songs is that I’m not on it. [Producer] David Odlum helped persuade me to truly sing on this song. In the beginning of my profession, I remember everyone telling me I used to be an excellent singer, but nobody ever really gave me credit for my songwriting. And what I really like about this song is it is not about me, it’s about something I wrote. This song is about opening your arms to the sky and singing your song as loud as you may. And I actually think that my younger self needed it. I went with this concept of, I need this to be an album for a younger me that can give me joy and hope. The lyric is incredibly deep, nevertheless it’s also playable like a lullaby.”
“Who We Love” [with Ed Sheeran] “Ed sent me this song, and I used to be fearful to start with because I don’t often take songs and make them mine. Ed and I even have been friends for a very long time. I’m not fascinated by doing an Ed collab that appears like a success—I wanted it to mean something. And after I heard this, I felt truly touched. I felt prefer it was a queer ballad anthem written from a friend. There was something so poignant and delightful about it. Ed has personally guided me through tough times and been a friend in a really cold industry. I wanted all the pieces about this song to feel warm.”
Apple Music Edition tracks
“It was truthfully one among the performances of my life. To begin with, the venue was incredible, but I actually wanted to alter the best way I did things live with that performance. I desired to have bodies on the stage. I desired to introduce dance. I principally start the show like I start my profession, and the primary song is ‘Stay With Me.’ Even when it comes to the garments, I start in all black, after which the show slowly transitions into Gloria and ‘Unholy.’ I take you from heaven to hell, because hell is just fabulous! I never thought that I’d have the ability to get the entire of the Royal Albert Hall slut-dropping and dancing. It was crazy. Cat Burns was there on the night, which was so special. Kim got here out. It was really about sharing the limelight and sharing this time with other musicians.”
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