“You like them crazy do you? I’m crazy through and through...” croons Sam Smith on their fourth album, Gloria. Smith seems too sweet to live up to the boast. You could safely take every song on this easygoing record home to meet the parents. Even on “I’m Not Here to Make Friends”, a track about searching for a lover in the darkness of a club, you can still imagine Smith at said club volunteering to be the designated driver for their mates.
This warmly conversational quality is nicely expressed on opener “Love Me More”, in which Smith asks listeners: “Have you ever felt like being somebody else?” They admit that the identity that “used to burn” now feels increasingly comfortable. Set to an affable, Nineties R&B beat, the song sees the mainstream pioneer of non-binary life holding out a companionable hand to anyone struggling to accept themselves.
