But their career to date has relied heavily on the evergreen appeal of heartworn balladry, classicist fare whose mild musical manners won’t give anyone a conniption. Smith’s voice is an elastic, expressive instrument that can ache, husk and soar – sometimes in the same breath. What’s more, Unholy may well have garnered more than 1.7bn streams and a Grammy nomination precisely because its raunchy maximalism marks such a shift from Smith’s damp hanky of a back catalogue.

But then Ed Sheeran crops up on Who We Love, bearing the unnecessary gift of a midtempo wet blanket

The song calls out a man who is cheating on his wife at “the body shop” its frank discussion of sexuality and outre video seem to have absorbed not only the lessons of LGBTQIA+ history, but of Lil Nas X’s forthright commercial juggernauting as well. And with Unholy, Smith and Petras have, in fact, made history – topping the singles chart in the US – a first for an out non-binary artist and a trans singer. “But lately it’s not hurting like it did before,” they sing. On Love Me More, Smith sings about past struggles with self-worth and, more importantly, how they feel now. Watch the video for Unholy by Sam Smith and Kim Petras.Įven though In the Lonely Hour (2014) declared itself to be a howl of pain at unrequited love for a man at the time, it feels as though Gloria may be the end result of a long pupation.

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