Sam Smith's Raw Return

The singer drank too much, battled writer’s block and saw a relationship fall apart – then poured it all into his ‘gritty’ new album

- Patrick Doyle

SAM SMITH WAS FEELING THE pressure. The English singer’s 2014 debut, In the Lonely Hour, was one of the biggest hits of the decade, selling 12.5 million copies and winning him four Grammys. He was tagged the male Adele and went from playing clubs to arenas in less than two years. But by early 2016, Smith had returned to London after two years of touring and found himself creatively paralyzed. “For the first two months, I really struggled,” he says. He had trouble writing about himself, he adds, “because I realized I didn’t actually like myself a lot.” Most nights, he’d go out drinking. “When you drink a lot, when you go out too much, the next day isn’t so fun. And when you’re really super sensitive and emotional, like I am, it’s just not good for you.”