Written throughout their late twenties, a period during which Smith reckoned publicly for the first time as non-binary, Love Goes is a disco-winged strut through, mostly, heartbreak.
But although the second person is employed liberally, it equally serves as a wrestle with inner turmoil. E.g., Another One has Smith falsetto-ing over spectral melodies about accepting an ex finding love, but reads just as much like pleading for acceptance for themselves. The smooth R’n’B of So Serious is self-doubt and inquiry as interrogating a past relationship.
Taken on the surface though, it’s a galvanising, sometimes vicious, always beautiful breakup record, and should be Smith’s defining work.
Love Goes by Sam Smith is out Oct 30 via Universal.
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