Album Review: Love Goes – Sam Smith

Sam Smith, "Diamonds". Photo: Courtesy Capitol Records/YouTube

Three years after releasing their second album The Thrill Of It All, Sam Smith has returned with a third album titled Love Goes. The album was released on October 30th, 2020 and was preceded by three singles, namely “How Do You Sleep?”, which was released back in July, 2019. Smith’s album was released on the same day as Ariana Grande’s album Positions, which dominated the music headlines, much to the detriment of Smith’s album. Love Goes is currently sitting at a critical score of 64 on Metacritic with a user’s score of 8.4. Smith’s album, while appealing to their fans, makes little progress for the artist or enables them to expand their audience, instead leaving them with a small but loyal base who will enjoy their music without a problem.

In listening to Smith’s latest album, it was striking how little substance was present within the album as a whole. Very few songs within the album are memorable, and those that are were released a year before the album at the latest. Overall, this hurts the album because it makes the newly released album feel older than it is. By including a single like “Fire On Fire” which was released back in 2018, it substantially dates the album as a whole. Truly, there is nothing that anchors the album or ties it together. Certainly the themes of love and loss are common throughout, but those are themes that have been present since the inception of Smith’s career and no longer carry the same weight as they did before. Certainly they don’t carry the same weight when there’s less effort placed in the production of the album. There is, however, one song that sticks out above all the rest as a clear hit for Smith, which is the second song on the album titled “Diamonds”. The song feels familiar, yet it portrays a different side of Smith that hasn’t necessarily come through on their prior albums. Rather than pine for love or lament heartbreak, Smith embraces a “his loss” narrative which sets the song apart from the entirety of the album. Unfortunately, though, “Diamonds” is out on its own.

Love Goes is a rather unfortunate album in that the release of the album was poorly handled and the album itself didn’t live up to expectations. Though the matter of living up to expectations is fairly subjective, and clearly Smith has produced an album that has the ability to substantially please their fanbase. My problem with the album lies in its simplicity and its inability to capture a more complex and nuanced reality of love and relationship. The album’s strength comes from Smith’s overt and outspoken queerness, which shows up in songs like “Young” and “I’m Ready”. These themes, however, don’t necessarily break through the contrived themes of the broken heart which permeate the entirety of Smith’s work. Even in a song like “I’m Ready”, the composition is a messy mixture of ballad and pop anthem, and criminally underuses Demi Lovato’s vocals. There isn’t anything revolutionary about Smith’s latest album. It would’ve been nice to see Smith grow as an artist and in what they wished to explore in their music, however they have seemed to become more of a one-trick pony. Hopefully there are better days ahead for Smith’s music, because they aren’t here yet.

Rating: 5.5/10