Nominated at the 2014 MOBO Awards for Best Album, Smith won that category and added three others that evening. In a welcome sign of the times, Smith’s sexuality didn’t define the project, and the songs’ rallying themes of love and loss crossed genres and generations.
The vulnerability that Smith chose to showcase resonated with a public who seized on their confirmation that the record had been in part shaped by a broken heart. A tender ballad, “Stay With Me” became their best-performing international song and was, significantly, the first to be picked up by influential adult contemporary radio stations in the States. While second single, “Money On My Mind,” had been built around a distinctive dance hook, Sam’s fragile machismo was played up to the hilt for the album’s true breakthrough hit. The secret to Smith’s success was not dissimilar to Adele’s: strong songs powered by an incredible voice drenched in the personality of the performer. In The Lonely Hour was the second best-selling British album in 2014 and ended up the third best-selling album in the US after its third single, “Stay With Me,” topped the UK charts and made it all the way to No.2 stateside. It had followed Smith’s first solo single, “Lay Me Down,” but that effort failed to break the all-important UK Top 40 – even though, over time, it has become better appreciated as a highlight of Smith’s 10-track debut album. Smith first came to our attention on Disclosure’s 2012 single “Latch,” but it was their performance on Naughty Boy’s “La La La,” which powered the song to the top of the UK charts in May 2013, that became their first signature track. Their debut album, In The Lonely Hour, was released on May 26, 2014, and has transformed the softly spoken British singer-songwriter into a global megastar. If any vocalist could possibly claim to be the current pretender to Adele’s throne, then Sam Smith is surely the prize candidate.
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