Review Summary: 'Unholy' is about right.
In the gaudy slurry that is modern pop music, Sam Smith occupies a very particular niche. Along with Adele, Lewis Capaldi and a handful of others, they are nestled amongst a contingent of singers whose voice is far more interesting than their actual musical output. Sam Smith's gradual ascension to pop stardom relied heavily on their vocal prowess, and it was a well-deserved rise to prominence. Their voice is undeniably fantastic, showcasing an immense range but also an incredibly intriguing vocal ability that sees delicate flutters between an assortment of notes within contained phrases. Theirs is undoubtedly a serious talent to behold. Yet, in crafting Gloria, an album Smith opines as the most themself they have ever been on a release, there is a serious lack of any real creativity or inspiration on any of the extremely forgettable 13 songs. What appears to have been focussed on is Smith *the individual*, and the musical components came very much as a belated afterthought. For the most part, this is a very revealing collection of songs, but they are held in a porridge-bland limbo of mediocrity by awkward lyrics, bare, uninteresting musicality, and an approach to songwriting that could perhaps be called 'derivative' if the listener were inclined to be extremely generous. If this is the truest representation of Smith as an artist and a person, it's not a great foreshadowing of things to come.
Blindingly apparent from the opening track is how base the sound overall is. Boring, repetitive beats are looped monotonously, occasionally accompanied by an equally uninteresting instrumental melody. First song 'Love Me More', despite its optimistic tone, is comically drab and makes use of ill-fitting vocal motifs in the background that don't serve the song as anything more than a serial distraction. 'No God', the following track, is almost exactly the same song, albeit with the addition of a dull harp melody and backup singers. These songs are clearly more in-line with Smith's previous efforts; an attempt to make their voice the star of the show whilst the musical content serves as an exaggerated metronome. Nonetheless, despite previous iterations of this stylistic by the singer, the underwritten vocal melodies here don't exhibit any real flair or excitement in their execution. They're still proficient, but for someone with a voice as capable as Smith's, this is really the very least a listener could expect. Furthermore, the increased addition of more pop-centric tropes as beat loops rather than orchestral refrains and sophisticatedly minimalist easy-listening tendencies highlight this seeming lack of enthusiasm to an unpleasant degree. 'Perfect' continues along this towpath but utilises a fluctuating vocal technique that actually fits within the composition. Unfortunately, this mild ingenuity is ground underfoot when the song introduces a guitar solo to the proceedings, during a crescendo that does not feel warranted or earned.
The more out-of-pocket moments on the record manifest predominantly as dance numbers, in a grab bag of styles. Points for diversity, but they are almost all universally dreadful. 'Lose You' is a subdued deep house song. It percolates with a slight tropical flavour but is again used as a backdrop rather than a main facet of the musical landscape, because Sam Smith IS the musical landscape. The beat is tedious and there's no real build or climax, just a petering out like the tail-end of a fart, and with about as much ceremony. Smith's contribution here is much in the same vein as most of Gloria's other tracks, which is to say, at the forefront but extremely underwhelming. There is some potential to the pleasantly stacked melodies during the chorus, but since this aspect is so underdeveloped the piece just feels entirely forgettable as anything other than 'the house track on Gloria'- if it can truly be called a house track. Single 'Unholy' is the stripper song; hypersexual, sultry and not without a pinch of bassy dynamism. Yet, neither featured artist Kim Petras nor Smith theirself actually play to their strengths, and the whole affair is really wispy and aggressively average. 'I'm Not Here To Make Friends' is the '80s disco number, and it is the best song on the release by a long chalk. Ostensibly a much inferior re-work of 'Le Freak' by Chic, it nonetheless has an actual rhythm, an actual groove, and a somewhat likeable chorus.
Smith's lyrical content on Gloria is a medley of stark emotionality and sexual suggestiveness, but neither facet has a great deal of depth or feels appropriate. The attempted earnestness comes to an unpleasant head on 'How To Cry', which makes its intentions clear from the first ten seconds. It is a stripped-back acoustic song with an overplayed sentimentality dousing every second like tar, a limp melody and a minimal feel that somehow also feels hideously ostentatious. It actually feels wretched in its banality, lacking any sense of the authenticity it is clearly striving for. Grand finale 'Who We Love', of course featuring Ed Sheeran in his token appearance, is basically the same as every other Ed Sheeran song. It is certainly less offensively bland than 'How To Cry', as it actually has some development to its sound and a slightly sweet melody, but it is still entirely lifeless and unimaginative. Conversely, taking a more traditionally modern, rudimentary pop sound in both structure and tone, 'Six Shots' and 'Gimme', are horrifically irritating and have no intricacy or memorability factor in the slightest. They both feature repeated motifs that are recycled to the point of haemorrhage and eschew Smith’s individual vocal prominence in favour of their overall tune, which is unfortunate as the melodies featured on both are dire.
Considering the controversy-baiting image that Smith has been perpetuating through their recent music videos and media appearances, it's very surreal how low-key and by-numbers the majority of this outing is. There is a slight sense of pushing the boat out a tad further when it comes to some of the thematic overtones, but these are still quite safe contextually and don't further their image in any meaningful way. There are moments of earnestness and the release feels genuinely sincere in its intentions, but the whole experience is so underbaked and saccharine in tone all good intentions get stopped before they have an opportunity to take wing. It feels like a step backwards, by dialling back on the vocal acrobatics and doubling down on the accepted pop motifs but without affording listeners the USP of the full power of Smith's dulcet tones. Reinvention is always a risky play in the music industry- Katy Perry, Christina Aguilera, Justin Timberlake, Miley Cyrus and many other modern pop acts have attempted the move, with results ranging on a spectrum from catastrophically negative to sublimely positive. Yet, the directional adjustments of the aforementioned artists were full send; a demonstrable complete commitment to the transition, with fresh, unified themes, sounds, and imagery. Gloria may mark a slight image adjustment for Smith, but also most certainly represents a profound regression in actual sound. All warmth and feeling has been traded in for vapidity and any sense of humility and affability is all but lost, resulting in a barebones, underwritten effort that doesn't represent the singer's vocal or songwriting abilities in the slightest.
