As a grad student always in the midst of procrastinating one thing or another, I spend a lot of time poking through the Spotify new releases section, trying to find something that will pique my interest and jumpstart my motivation for more paper writing or Freud reading. My latest discovery? British soul-pop singer Sam Smith, who has hit airwaves with his debut EP, Nirvana. <\/i>His full-length, In The Lonely Hour, <\/i>is set to arrive later this month, but for now, these seven songs are an utterly stellar intro to a unique and resonant young talent. At only 22 years old, Smith writes and croons well beyond his years. His voice is steeped in soul, and each track soars on the clarity and warmth of his commanding performances.<\/p>\n
Opener \u201cSafe With Me,\u201d produced by Two Inch Punch, has a slinky, trip-hop quality to it, the static flurries of drums accompanied by subtly distorted vocals. But it\u2019s the melted chocolate quality of Smith\u2019s singing that really pulls you in.<\/p>\n
This is no more evident than on the slow-burning torch song \u201cNirvana,\u201d which has broken my heart and mended it back together every time I listen it. Paired with perfectly lush, hazy instrumentation, Smith describes the tenuous, electric charge of reconnecting with an old lover: \u201cI\u2019m done with running so I give in to you \/ This moment has caused a reaction \/ Resulting in our reattachment.\u201d In the span of three minutes, Smith manages to capture the whole precious scope of a captured moment in time that will never last, and yet\u2026It\u2019s a stunner that has to be listened to (and believe me, I have about a hundred times now). There is also a remix of \u201cNirvana\u201d by Harry Fraud included as the final track here, but personally, the original is a perfect statement that needs no additional tinkering.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Sam Smith first emerged on the music scene through his collaboration with British electronic duo Disclosure on their 2013 album, Settle, <\/i>which featured Smith on its lead single \u201cLatch.\u201d While that version is certainly good, Smith\u2019s acoustic take on this EP provides a nice counterpart to Disclosure\u2019s tricked out, effusive pop. Here, his voice lilts effortlessly into a gorgeous falsetto as the piano trills softly behind him, turning this into a powerful ballad: \u201cNow I got you in my space \/ I won\u2019t let go of you \/ Got you shackled in my embrace \/ I\u2019m latching on to you.\u201d Smith\u2019s live version of \u201cI\u2019ve Told You Now,\u201d performed at St. Pancras Old Church in London, is similarly evocative, tethered to the ethereal swirling of his voice with little else than strings and piano. <\/p>\n
The US edition of this EP features three additional tracks: the aforementioned remix of \u201cNirvana,\u201d a quick, slinky-smooth pairing with Disclosure and Nile Rodgers (\u201cTogether\u201d), and \u201cMoney On My Mind,\u201d which is incidentally the track that led me to Sam Smith\u2019s work (Thanks, Spotify!). Again, it\u2019s his effortlessly pure falsetto that takes center stage as he sings, \u201cI don\u2019t have money on my mind \/ I do it for the love.\u201d Idealistic, maybe, but Smith is so endearing that he pulls it off. <\/p>\n
Cleary, I\u2019ve been entranced by Sam Smith\u2019s debut EP. The songs are evocative, honest, and wise beyond their years, uplifted even higher by Smith\u2019s gorgeous voice. Even better, each track is distinctive, both from the rest of the material on the EP and from other artists of Smith\u2019s ilk. It\u2019s the pairing of glitchy instrumentation and silky-smooth vocals on \u201cStay With Me,\u201d the cracked poetry lyrics of \u201cNirvana,\u201d or the seamless genre bending on \u201cMoney On My Mind.\u201d Hopefully the iMinent In The Lonely Hour <\/i>has as much to recommend, but in the meantime, I\u2019ll keep spinning this EP. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":31964,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[9401],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-43693","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-sam-smith","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/43693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/43693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=43693"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=43693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}