It’s been two years since we’ve heard any new music from Sam Smith, but the British singer is back and better than ever at putting love and heartbreak into ballad format. With “Too Good At Goodbyes,” Smith’s lead single from his upcoming sophomore album, the Grammy and Oscar winner has channelled his pain into a song that many listeners can relate to. Leave it to Sam Smith to make heartbreak sound beautiful.
Smith’s “Too Good At Goodbyes” has already hit number one in his native UK, but the song, and his upcoming album, almost didn’t happen. In a new interview with Sir Elton John for Attitude Magazine, Smith says that his latest heartbreak left him uninspired.
“There was a period, when making the record, that I was in a really bad place,” said Smith. “I got dumped, which wasn’t very nice. Writing music about that kind of thing is normally like therapy for me, but when I got dumped this time ’round I just couldn’t write for about two months…My team had to force me to get into the studio, because I almost felt as if I didn’t want to do it any more. So, there were moments on there where it got a bit intense and I started to lose myself.”
Turning his personal experience into a universal song, Smith has now dropped the video for “Too Good At Goodbyes” and gives a face to heartbreak. Directed by Luke Monaghan, who Smith previously worked with for his 2014 single “Leave Your Lover,” “Too Good At Goodbyes” opens with Smith warming up his voice in a recording studio. The video then cuts to various shots around a city in England where couples on the brink of breakup prepare to say their final goodbyes. As for Smith, he consoles his soon-to-be former lover with a hug before finding a quiet spot on a grassy knoll to look out at the city and reflect on his relationship.
In a recent interview with Beats 1 Radio host Zane Lowe, Smith confirmed that the lead single is an autobiographical track and one that he was terrified to release. “I’ll tell you it’s the closest out of the album to the record because this song is about me and about a relationship that I was in,” says Smith. “This album actually is not all about me. There’s about four songs that are about me and the rest are about different things and different people in my life and what they’ve gone through. Different in my opinions on different things. I wanted to welcome people back in and I want it to be about my voice and about the storytelling of something that I’ve gone through.”
Smith also revealed that the new album will include one duet and one song produced by hit-maker Timbaland. The singer has yet to announce the title of his sophomore album, but did confirm that the new disc will be out before Christmas. Prepare to do a lot of crying around the holidays.
