Sam Smith may have announced that he's taking a break, but not before he releases a little new music to tide his fans over. On Monday (Nov. 2), the "Writing's On the Wall" singer debuted the first new song off his In the Lonely Hour - Drowning Shadows Edition, the dramatic, heartbreaking title track "Drowning Shadows."
Smith rolled out the new single on Zane Lowe's Beats 1 radio show, saying that the song was written early on in the In the Lonely Hour recording process (before "Stay With Me" and "Lay Me Down") but that they couldn't nail down the production.
The song, in typical Smith fashion, is bombastic and utterly sad. Against an orchestral arrangement and a booming piano, Smith decries one-night stand culture and features him wanting something more in his life but sometimes being unable to find it within himself in the midst of a depression. "It's about me getting in a taxi... There was a crossroads. One would go to these gay clubs that I used to go out to and then the other road would go home. I was in such a sad place when I wrote this album, sometimes I would have to choose. 'Do I go home to nothing or stay out for more?,'" he said. "It was a genuine choice for me."
"Am I wrong to give in to the pressure? / 'Cause I feel like the city's got the better of me / Oh, this casual love isn't what it seems / And I try to imagine something closer / And somebody who is good for me / I'm so tired of all this searching," he sings, illustrating the heart wrenching choice.
"Drowning Shadows" is the "title track" off Smith's forthcoming album re-release In The Lonely Hour - Drowning Shadows Edition. The new LP, which will feature all of the songs on Smith's Grammy winning album and nine new tracks, is due to arrive in stores on Friday, Nov. 6.
