bonus feature: CD

If the title isn't clear enough, our soulful British song-smith is lonely.  Depressingly lonely.  It was a thoughtful interview with All Things Considered on NPR that had me make a special trip when the album dropped.

Ten days later the album is still depressing me.  Best known here in the States for the soulful  falsetto on 'Stay with Me', Sam sings with the essence of Lionel Ritchie and The Commodores and John Legend  It's a beautiful tone; but I am exhausted by the distance and sadness in his voice.

'Leave Your Lover' has a painful pleading that breaks your soul.  Hints of Stevie Wonder pop up in 'I'm Not the Only One' and this listener could easily hear Timberlake inspired stylings in 'Life Support'.

As I hear it, In the Lonely Hour is a beautifully rendered pop album and it'll be interesting to see what this kid will do.  There is not a bad song on the album.  Each arrangement highlights Smith's falsetto and rightly so.  However, as a solo play, fourteen tracks later, I'm so f^cking depressed.  By 'Lay Me Down', I was desperate for him to find a woman so he'd shut the hell up.  This listener, prefers the sound of Sam Smith mixed in a playlist.