Money is definitely not all that’s on Sam Smith’s mind. In The Lonely Hour tells tales of unrequited love, more unrequited love, Smith’s wretched experience in the feared friendzone, and even more unrequited love.
Album opener, ‘Money on my Mind’ sets it straight from the get-go, he does it for the love. You can only hope his remarkable flair for prose and warbling can pull him out of that friendzone.
In The Lonely Hour appears to be one colossal yet charming gesture intended to steal hearts, with wholehearted ballads such as ‘Good Thing,’ ‘Stay with me’ and ‘Leave your Lover,’ ‘Like I can’ and ‘Lay me Down’ but even if he hasn’t whipped his guy-friend’s heart yet, his mesmerising vocals have undoubtedly stolen the hearts of the rest of the nation.
Smith’s captivating choral tones fuse together with an acoustic-blues melody in ‘I’m not the only one’ with all despair perceived as he sings “You say I’m crazy, cause you don’t think I know what you’ve done but when you call me baby, I know I’m not the only one.” It’s undoubtable that this troubadour has a knack for distributing his sentiments candidly as the frustration is heard in ‘I’ve told you now’ as he reiteratesthe chorus “What the hell? Why do you think I come out here, on my free will wasting all my precious time…”
‘Not in That way’ is the epitomising track for the term ‘friendzone’ with the chorus involving the line “You will never know that feeling, You will never see through these eyes, I’d never ask you cause deep down, I’m certain I know what you’d say, You’d say I’m sorry, believe me, I love you but not in that way” as he tells a passionate, disheartening tale of one-sided feelings.
Although, with last track ‘Restart,’ Smith seems to be taking the record in a new direction both musically and lyrically; somehow fusing elements of funk, soul, pop and R&B rather than just exquisite whining, the theme of ‘Restart’ is unquestionably bittersweet as Smith lets go of the feeling of the rest of the album, simply wishing for a fresh start and showing that friendzone part of his life is now over… and he got out all by himself, you go Sam Smith!