Dallas Voice (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 31, No. 7, Ed. 1 Friday, June 27, 2014 Page: 21 of 36
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>9 1 1
SMITH
ONfi_r ftouR
Sami
Soulful Brit singer answers the question
What if Adele became Aaron Neville?
ARNOLD WAYNE JONES I Executive Editor
jones@dallasvoice.com
How's this for creative viral
marketing: Release an album, and
just as you do, leak a YouTube
video of you singing a cover of a
Whitney Houston song. Then
don't include that song on the
album.
Watch the resulting frenzy.
That's what it's been like for 22-
year-old singer-songwriter Sam
Smith, whose debut album, In the
Lonely Hour, dropped just as a
moody, down-tempo version of
"How Will I Know" turned the
pudgy Brit into an Internet sensa-
tion. But for music fans familiar
with a few singles he's released
since 2012, it came as no surprise
that he could shame WTiit: The boy
has pipes. (Witness his recent ap-
pearance on The Late Show that left the usually
unflappable David Letterman gobsmacked and
speechless.)
Smith's paradoxical sounds — a throaty
falsetto, if that makes sense, the kind Aaron
Neville has perfected — grabs your eardrums
like a lariat ropin' a steer at the rodeo. It's ethe-
real and as piercing as frostbite. Emo-
tionally, he's in touch with his
wounded soul (his album was in-
spired by a romantic devastation of
unrequited love for another man. That
man's probably kicking himself about
now.)
In the Lonely Hour is a personal
album that mixes driving disco beats
with lush orchestrations, all anchored
by the powerful vocal prowess Smith
displays. There's no clutter to his
voice, despite the vocal runs. He's con-
trolled and precise, and each song has a charac-
ter that unites even the disparate styles.
The dominant genre, if you want to label it, is
pop R&B and blue-eyed soul. It's old-school, but
not for oldsters.
Smith's mouth enrobes the microphone, so
each breath feels like a gasp, each ache a whisper
shared by just you and him. It's an old torch-
singer trick — Billie Holliday was the best at it,
but check out Norah Jones, Chet Baker and
many others for examples — that fuses intimacy
with universality.
There's a lot of pain here. "Good Thing,"
which most obviously captures the pain of rejec-
tion, is the early stand-out. For a moment I believed
you loved me too /But life is never like that and you
were never strong/so much of a good thing won't be
good for long Smith intones, resigned but still
wounded.
Here and elsewhere, many of the riffs con-
jure a hodgepodge of other artists — Neville as
noted already, but also Sylvester (on the disc
opener "Money on My Mind," which snares
you with the hypnotic refrain I do it for the love)
as well as Adele (an early-20s Brit wailing
about love? Come on!), Amy Wine-
house and even '80s-era arena rock
(the gospel-tinged chorus on "Stay
with Me" made me think of For-
eigner circa Agent Provocateur, but
held closer to the vest).
Not all the tracks pack the same
punch. "Like I Can," on which he
whines He'll never love you like I can
can can, is a familiar sentiment with-
out a great musical hook, but "Life
y Support," which is mixed with a
complex syncopated backbeat while
Smith's voice scales the upper ethers of coun-
tertenor and trawls the trench of baritone,
keeps you guessing from bar to bar. The
breathy anticipation of "Lay Me Down" could
be inserted into a love scene in any good stage
musical and win its singer a Tony Award.
The official disc boasts 10 tracks, but the
deluxe edition includes an astonishing five
more songs. The best of the extras is probably
the acoustic mix of "Latch," but "Reminds Me
of You" gets your head bopping on the rhyth-
mic chorus and he also features on a song led
by Naughty Boy also included here.
Smith isn't playing it safe in any way, mak-
ing a debut with collaborations, extras and out
gay messages. It's as if he can't contain himself,
destined to infect us with his special misery. I,
for one, am now proudly a carrier. ■
INTHE LONELY HOUR
Sam Smith
Capitol
dallas un .com
and
PRESENT
TNEBIGI
E
The loverliest motion picture of them all!
LANDMARK THEATRES
Magnolia Theatre
3499 McKinney ■ West Village • (214) 520-0394
Tue, July 1 at 7:30PM
Buy Advance Tickets Online tickets.landmarktheatres.com
are happy to announce their marriage at
Charlie Palmer’s Aureole Restaurant
New York City, June 6, 2014
on the 35th anniversary of the day they met
Steve and Oliver will join Friends and Family
to celebrate with cake and champagne at the
City Tavern
1402 Main Street • Downtown Dallas • Upstairs
Saturday, June 28th 2pm-4pin
No gifts
Please consider a donation to
The Human Rights Campaign • www.hrc.org
Support HRC - Wedding Registry - Find a Couple - Oliver Roberts
action. hrc.org/goto/Steveand Oliver
Casual dress
Thanks to everyone
for their loyal support
DIRECTED BY
GEORGE CUKOR
Vudrev
Hepburn Harrison
My,
Fair
06.27.14 dallasvoice 21
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Nash, Tammye. Dallas Voice (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 31, No. 7, Ed. 1 Friday, June 27, 2014, newspaper, June 27, 2014; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth706843/m1/21/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.