Sam Smith Streaming His New Album 'Hazel Eyes'
(Capitol) Sam Smith releases Hazel Eyes, a stunning album that transforms a real-time love story into a visionary meditation on what it means to live with an unguarded heart.
With Smith embracing the role of co-producer for the first time - and working with the same collaborators across a project for the first time - they've made their most emotionally direct and daring work yet, soundtracked by an exquisitely unpredictable mix of genres including baroque pop, British folk, outlaw country, and left-field R&B.
"In many ways, this album brought me closer to myself than I've ever been," says Smith. "It taught me to embrace what comes naturally to me as an artist and honor the music I love most, which is timeless pop that connects with people from all walks of life. It also showed me that being vulnerable isn't just about exposing your pain - it can be just as vulnerable to be openly romantic. And in the world we're living in right now, singing about queer love with complete honesty and directness feels very important." Stream the album here.
Smith's new single "Constant Companion" unfolds with all the danger and intrigue of a classic Western film, setting their low-slung vocals against a sprawl of dusky guitar work and sweeping strings courtesy of Rob Moose (Bon Iver, The National). The song is a ride-or-die love story of cinematic scope, finding our hero pledging loyalty to their partner in crime: "I can be the razor in your hat, you can be the blade that's got my back / And when the good old darkness comes, I will keep you safe within my arms." Filmed in Spain by director Albert Moya with choreography by (LA)HORDE, the accompanying video - which premieres at 9am PT // 12pm ET - brings the song's world to life, following the misadventures and intimate moments of Smith and a lover through dusty plains and frontier outposts.
A labor of love three years in the making, Hazel Eyes emerged as Smith navigated a time of monumental change, including falling in love and moving to New York City from their homeland of England. Following their 2023 album Gloria (featuring the global smash single "Unholy" with Kim Petras), Smith connected with co-producers Simon Aldred (Avicii, Liam Gallagher) and David Odlum (Glen Hansard, Josh Ritter) in search of an organic approach and sound rooted in their real-life story and the beauty of collaboration.
They worked in legendary spaces like New York City's Electric Lady Studios with a close circle of visionary contributors, including indie-pop luminary Feist, the multi-instrumentalist Shahzad Ismaily (Damien Rice, Yoko Ono), Moose, and, among others, the 28-member TwoCity Chorus vocal collective. The result is a deliberately earthbound yet endlessly enchanting sound coursing through a narrative arc begins on the eve of falling in love (with the opener "Everlasting Love") and continues through the first few years of a relationship. Named for the most forthright love song Smith has ever written, Hazel Eyes illuminates the way toward a life defined by trust in joy, devotion without armor, and radical sincerity.
The album was preceded by the singles "When He's Gone," a moving exploration of the fear of losing your person that Rolling Stone hailed as a "bluesy lament" and Billboard deemed "perfectly haunting"; "Oh Mother," which builds to a spellbinding call-and-response between Smith and TwoCity, whose harmonies blaze with a feverish intensity; and "My Guy," a sublimely romantic track released alongside a music video that doubled as a portrait of Smith's own domestic bliss.
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