Love Goes

“This album is how I healed myself,” Sam Smith tells Apple Music. “And it sums up what I went through so perfectly.” Perhaps unsurprising for an artist who has made songs about love and loss their trademark, the singer is referring to heartbreak, which they document in granular detail on their third album Love Goes. There’s relatable post-split hedonism ("Dance [’Til You Love Someone Else]"), the crushing low of hearing your ex has moved on (“Another One”) and the slow journey towards self-acceptance (“Love Goes”). But if you’re expecting Smith to only explore such subjects via balladry: don’t. This is an album full of life-affirming pop, as well as disco, acoustic guitars and cinematic strings. This is, too, an album that the singer made us wait for. Originally titled To Die For and slated for release in early 2020, it was delayed—then reworked—to become Love Goes, as Smith took stock during 2020’s global lockdown. “When everything stopped, it made me realise the album wasn’t finished, in a weird way,” they say. “And that the title felt really inappropriate. There was talk of me not releasing anything at all and just going back to the drawing board. But the last two years for me as a writer and a singer were so beautiful and freeing. And I wanted to share that with people.” The finished product, says Smith, is the record they are most proud of so far—and the album on which they feel the most free. “I felt at one point that I was going to be trapped onstage wearing a suit and singing ballads for the rest of my life,” they say. “When I look back at this album, it reminds me of the courage it took. To this day, there’s a music industry of people that wants me to do a certain thing, to abide by the rules. The risks that I took and the stress that it caused for me to truly be myself and express myself in a queer way was really difficult. I’m proud of myself for doing that.” Read on as Smith candidly walks us through Love Goes. Young “‘Young’ is really sad. I wrote it w