The summer of the Ebola virus epidemic, the summer of the ALS ice bucket challenge, the summer of the Ferguson riots, the summer of Robin Williams’ death and the summer of the US soccer team’s hopeful streak in the cup.
Like other news stories and current events, these happenings affect our daily lives and daily emotions.Therefore, the Billboard Top 100 arguably reflects our current mood as a culture. No other writer has stood out as reflecting our current culture’s mood than Sam Smith.
Among the pop, rap and more party-worthy songs, Smith captures attention as the soulful singer-songwriter grasping common emotional experiences of a younger audience that usually distract themselves with Iggy or Kanye, instead of being unafraid to feel what needs to be felt.
The success of Sam Smith’s album “In the Lonely Hour” reflects the silent but ever-present journeys we work through in realizing that the ups and downs are what create life’s beauty. “In the Lonely Hour” remained a top ten album on iTunes as Sam Smith’s music boomed this summer. Although he lost the VMA for “Artist to Watch” to Fifth Harmony,with his growing popularity and influence, people are evidently watching him.
Smith’s smash-hit album exemplifies the magic of music.
In an interview with The Guardian, he spoke of his inability to relate well to other artists today. Smith also opened up about the fear of his recent success slipping through his fingers —the common belief of too good to be true.
Heartfelt is the essence of his voice, which empathizes with the mixture of feelings that simple words can’t express. Besides “Stay With Me,” Smith was featured in the song “Latch” by Disclosure, and his own album includes an acoustic cover of the song that puts the club-worthy radio version to shame. Slower and full of raw emotion, the lyrics of “Latch” (Acoustic) cause inevitable chills so that the listener can’t help but keep it on repeat.
No one can deny the beauty and intensity of “In the Lonely Hour,” and Sam Smith deserves the utmost praise and respect for his passionate performance. The British singer shows it pays to be a unique sound on a chart that usually highlights styles with shallow lyrics and predictable expressions. His soulful sound is timeless, and his words hold true and relate to many different experiences.
Listening to his music, he reminds us that even “In the Lonely Hour,” we are not alone. Through his lyrics, Sam Smith proves that there is a way to describe what we feel, and we are not the only ones dizzy with hope for how we want things to turn out in the end. With songs like “Latch” and “Lay Me Down,” he unhinges the normal conveyor belt of relationships and places them into fourteen songs on an album that urges the audience to feel with all their might.
