Sam Smith - Gloria [album]

[Teletubby 116,849]

out at local midnight time

• Love Me More - an ode to new-found self-worth and Smith’s goodbye to both their musical past and the insecure young person who no longer defines them. “Now,” says Smith, “there’s a clear road ahead in terms of what I want to express.”

• No God - a sublime, string-caressed atmospheric (featuring hauntingly hypnotic backing vocals), the lyrics beseeching, “You’re no god, you’re no teacher, you’re no saint, you’re no leader…” It could be a lost George Michael classic, Smith’s commentary on the divided, delusional opinions they heard in LA during the Covid era ‘led’ by Trump.

• Hurting Interlude - an excerpt from a news anchor covering New York’s first ever Pride in the 1970s

• Lose You - a euphoric electro-pop eulogy for a lesbian friend going through her first break-up, “it’s my Kylie meets George Michael meets Abba moment”. 

• Perfect feat. Jessie Reyez - written in Malibu with Jessie Reyez (featuring her kittenish, sultry vocals), a celebration of imperfection and sexual desire. “Big lips just how I like,” teases Smith, “be brave boy put them on me…”
“Jessie helped me express my sex,” says Smith. “To say things I’ve always wanted to say, that were really hard to say in rooms of men.”

• Unholy feat. Kim Petras - written in Jamaica, a song originally, notes Smith, “abandoned by everyone because it was too dangerous!” Crafted around an Arabic scale, this is frenetic sonic sorcery, a multi-voiced, menacing sound collage.
The song calls out a nameless industry acquaintance described by Smith as “a dirty dog”, who disrespects his partner and kids, “it’s not cool, it’s gross and sometimes they’re the holiest people as well”. “Me, Kim and a room of nine men,” recalls Smith. “And we weren’t necessarily being listened to? So I stopped the session, said ‘I need everyone to shut the **** up and I need Kim to do Kim’. 

• How To Cry - a stunning acoustic reverie which observes, devastatingly, “Nobody taught you how to cry, but somebody showed you how to lie”, a reflection on a past relationship where Smith gave “all the emotion, honesty and truth, and all I got was a closed door”.

• Six Shots - ‘sex song!’, the woozy r&b dreamscape.

• Gimme feat. Koffee & Jessie Reyez - described by Smith as “filth!” Jessie Reyez and Koffee both appear, the track a dubby, hypnotic sex trance, Smith inviting a lover to, “relax, walk before you run, your eyes on my gun, I need you to come…closer”.

• Dorothy’s Interlude - eight seconds of outtakes from pivotal moments throughout queer history: drag artist Divine in Pink Flamingo declaring “how’s this for a centre spread?’, a snatch of Judy Garland’s ‘Somewhere Over The Rainbow’, trans activist Sylvia Rivera’s heart-breaking speech during a 1973 gay liberation rally, “I believe in the gay power!”, a final flourish from landmark ballroom culture documentary Paris Is Burning (1991).

• I’m Not Here To Make Friends - a strident disco-pop thriller written with Stargate and Jessie Reyez, produced by Calvin Harris in LA, its central lyric a statement of intent, “I’m not here to make friends… I need a lover!” 

• Gloria - a lullaby written by Smith in lockdown, completed with folk/blues musician Foy Vance and recorded with a local choir in St Mary’s Catholic Church in Saffron Walden, the church Smith attended as a child. It’s another first for them, “my queer love hymn, saying life is a song to Gloria”, the word Gloria representing the unknowable life force, “the thing I can’t put a word to, I don’t know if it’s nature or a feminine energy inside me that I’m setting free”.

• Who We Love feat. Ed Sheeran -  is a world class piano ballad, a masterclass in transcendental joy and a future Pride anthem, begun by Smith’s friend, little known Suffolk hopeful Ed Sheeran, crafted together in Sheeran’s home studio and completed as a duet. The vocals, from both, are beguiling, the lyrics a poem to universal love: “It’s not a feeling you can run from, ‘cos we love who we love…” Not a dry eye across the planet.
“It’s a special song,” nods Smith. “Me and Ed have a beautiful relationship as friends, firstly and I never wanted to blur those lines with music. But he came to me with the beginnings of the song and it felt like a gift. It’s gorgeous.”

Gloria’s final surprise is its length: a sparkling waterfall of musical ideas distilled into 30 minutes, 16 seconds of lightning-in-a-bottle.
“I knew what I wanted to say, say it quick and get out of there,” says Smith. “It’s also a celebration, of all the genres and all the female divas, vocalists and pop writers that I love. I harnessed all those memories and put them into one album. And I wanted to be defiant.”

“There’s a huge female influence on Gloria,” says Smith. “I made sure the rooms I was in had that balance. Which was wonderful. Because it’s been very male heavy in my career in terms of co-writers and producers.”

source: universal music

[NATAH 31,268]

@Kimmo where's your new gif, bae?

[River 90,487]

7 minutes ago, NATAH said:

@Kimmo where's your new gif, bae?

banned

[Teletubby 116,849]

2 minutes ago, River said:

banned

it isn't banned

[NATAH 31,268]

1 minute ago, Teletubby said:

it isn't banned

i just noticed halsey in the back!!

[COOOK 76,405]

okay so now Loose, Perfect, Who We Love and of course the gay anthem I’m Not Here To Make Friends are on my claim list... Gloria is about to smash!! @Kimmo

[River 90,487]

4 minutes ago, Teletubby said:

it isn't banned

[Kimmo 76,590]

43 minutes ago, NATAH said:

@Kimmo where's your new gif, bae?

 

33 minutes ago, Teletubby said:

it isn't banned

 

28 minutes ago, COOOK said:

okay so now Loose, Perfect, Who We Love and of course the gay anthem I’m Not Here To Make Friends are on my claim list... Gloria is about to smash!! @Kimmo

 

37 minutes ago, River said:

banned

Not y’all making Mama proud by spamming River with some Glory-a 

Every song is a bop, plus don’t forget to buy the Target Exclusive y’all!!!

 

[thierryrreiht 19,967]

[badfaith 5,605]

Excited to hear Six Shots and Lose You

[AnglerfishbraBENUS 4,820]

i love them

[AkariGaga 1,067]

Slay

[Ziggy 10,345]

I thought Unholy sounded a bit Arabic. guess that's why lol

that said, it's one of the most grating songs ive ever heard and i dont mean that to be like slam dunk gotcha. i hope he turns it with the rest of the album bc if nothing else aat least unholy tried for something (and to be clear, I love metallic productions, dissonance, atonal music, and all that so the "mishmash" thing isn't the issue so much as its execution for me).

Love how much thought he's given this!

[HookerOnAChurch 6,637]

This is so amazing. They're living their best life with this album. GLORIA is like the album of the freedom for Sam. I can't wait. 

 

[ModernEcstasy 6,417]

I’m looking forward to seeing what they deliver. 
But the entire album being only 30 minutes long? What?! I hate todays music trends!