Sam Smith: Gloria album review — throwing musical caution to the wind

Sam Smith’s hit single “Unholy” with Kim Petras broke ground last year as the first US number one to be scored by openly non-binary (Smith) and transgender (Petras) solo artists. The song is a moreish helping of TikTok-feeding fast food that lasts less than three minutes, an entertainingly trashy earworm with stentorian Gregorian chants, Middle Eastern scales, a compulsive electronic bassline and lyrics rhyming “daddy” and “addy”, as in “address” or “Adderall”, or both.

In terms of making history, this winningly tasteless track — an edgy Eurovision number in all but name — might reasonably be judged a small step for humankind. But it was a giant leap for Smith. The British singer has a reputation for making tastefully sad songs about break-ups, his ornate torch-singing smoothed out for mainstream pop palatability. The approach has brought them immense success, starting with their multi-platinum debut, 2014’s In the Lonely Hour. Creative change has been incremental: 2020’s Love Goes shifted the dial to a more upbeat style while keeping the heartbreak balladry.

This conservatism stands in contrast to Smith’s boldness about their sexuality and gender. From the beginning of their career, the addressees of their love songs were male, an uncompromising expression of desire in a chartworld that was more closeted a decade ago than now. In 2019, they came out as non-binary, among the first major stars to do so. Their fourth album, Gloria, is pitched as Smith unbound, the work of a singer throwing musical caution to the wind.

Made with regular collaborators Jimmy Napes and Stargate, it packs 11 tracks and two spoken-word interludes about LGBT+ identity into just 33 minutes. The songs shift restlessly between styles. “Love Me More” is crisply drawn from gospel-pop and hip-hop/soul, a mode that suits Smith as they decorate earnest platitudes about self-love with rococo vocal runs. “Lose You” accelerates smoothly into disco, a good change in tempo. The heat is turned up another notch with “Unholy” — but then the album goes awry.

“Gimme” is a sex-focused dancehall number with Jamaican singer Koffee and Canadian singer Jessie Reyez, whose irritating vocal hook hammers like a drill. “Gloria” takes a left turn into an a cappella choral hymn, with Smith over-singing their lead part. Closing track “Who We Love” is a maudlin duet with Ed Sheeran about tolerance. Undone by stuttering songwriting quality, the album can’t consolidate Smith’s leap forward.

★★☆☆☆

‘Gloria’ is released by Capitol Records