Sam Smith: Gloria review | Alexis Petridis's album of the week

(EMI)
With hints of R&B, trap and disco, Smith’s fourth album tiptoes away from their trademark piano-led ballads – but isn’t the ‘edgy’ departure they think it is

A mainstream artist making noises about their forthcoming release being “the album I always wanted to make” is the kind of thing that makes record companies nervous. It comes with the implicit suggestion that the music that made them famous wasn’t quite the ticket, and the sense that the fans who loved said music might be in for a shock. But when that artist is Sam Smith – who has said just that about their fourth album, Gloria, bolstered by a press release talking up the album’s “edgy, experimental” nature – it’s worth remembering that we’ve been here before. Smith couched Gloria’s predecessor in similar terms: their third album Love Goes was supposedly “experimental”, and “allowed me to be whoever I wanted to be in the studio that day” etc. As it turned out, it was about as experimental as a packet of digestive biscuits, unless said experiment involved amping up the singer’s trademark romantic misery even further than before. The sense that Smith might not be the best judge of their own work, at least when it comes to its ability to spring surprises, thus took shape.

Still, the chart-topping collaboration with Kim Petras that preceded Gloria’s release represented a departure for Smith and a historical milestone for Petras – Unholy was the first time a trans or non-binary artist had topped the Billboard Hot 100 – even if its sound wasn’t particularly novel; you can detect trap, the gothic atmospherics of Billie Eilish circa 2019 and Sophie’s hyperpop production style in its DNA. The story of a straight married father secretly “getting hot” at a gay club called the Body Shop, it featured a dramatic choral hook and a stark electronic sound – as did its minimal, dancehall-influenced follow-up Gimme.

Continue reading...

source https://oto.oto-login.com/

Nhận xét

Đăng nhận xét

Bài đăng phổ biến từ blog này

Half-witted, reckless Librium Liz may be even worse than May and Johnson | John Crace

Robotic PM displayed zero awareness in radio interviews of the damage she has done First, an apology. I should never have christened Theresa May “the Maybot”. With hindsight, she appears positively emotionally present. Touchy-feely. Almost functional. If not entirely competent. Certainly not the 1980s piece of Amstrad junk she always seemed when she was running the country. If you can call it that. But the Tories are just playing with us. It’s as if the members said: “So you think David Cameron is useless? Just wait until we give you Theresa.” And once we’d all had about enough of May, they gave us a narcissistic, sociopathic liar instead. Continue reading... source https://oto.oto-login.com/
Đọc thêm

The White Lotus season two review – this immaculate show’s writing is utterly unrivalled

The glorious, layered comedy-drama is back – with sex on its mind. Set in Sicily, impeccable turns come from Jennifer Coolidge and new faces including Aubrey Plaza It is a measure of just how good the first series of The White Lotus was – the writing, the blending of murder mystery and sharp satire, the performances, the direction, the gorgeous photography even under lockdown conditions – that although people do vividly remember the turd being curled out into a guest’s suitcase by a man driven to the edge of tolerance, they remember it as only part of a flawlessly executed whole. Now the show’s creator, Mike White, is back with another carefully curated batch of overprivileged guests at his mercy. This time they are being cared for by the staff – and sex workers – at the White Lotus hotel in Sicily instead of Hawaii, and White’s beady moral eye is on sexual rather than racial politics. The writing is as dense and layered as ever, the plotting is immaculate and the viewers’ sympathie
Đọc thêm

Chris Ashton reaches try milestone in Leicester’s thrashing of Exeter

Leicester 62-19 Exeter Ashton scores hat-trick for 101st Premiership try Try-scoring 101 for Chris Ashton. English rugby’s most prolific finisher cemented his status as the Premiership’s greatest ever try-scorer by becoming the first player in the history of the competition to reach 100 tries, running in a hat-trick in Leicester’s dominant win over Exeter. Ashton, who last week announced he is retiring at the end of the season, began the match on 98 but the 36-year-old wasted little time in racing to three figures before adding his third on the day and his 101st in total. His cause was helped by three yellow cards to Exeter – two for Olly Woodburn which meant a red for the Chiefs wing – but here was a reminder of just how deadly Ashton remains. His were three of nine tries for Leicester, who have now all but confirmed their place in the playoffs. They were caused problems by Exeter in the first half but the champions are timing their end-of-season run formidably. Ashton deserves t
Đọc thêm