As the music industry evolves, so do expectations surrounding new music. With trends and listening patterns shifting at a break-neck pace, artists are expected to usher in each new project as a brand new “era,” creating a recursive loop of authenticity, followed by slight reinvention, followed by re-established authenticity.
But when Sam Smith reintroduces themselves on Gloria, the pop superstar’s long-awaited fourth studio album, it feels different. This is not a pop star merely trying to make headlines or fulfill a promise of something “new” — Gloria sounds like it’s coming from an artist who finally feels comfortable enough to take risks with their sound in the name of honesty.
For that reason, Gloria can sound a lot like whiplash. In one moment, you’re listening to a slowed-down, smooth R&B-tinged song about a selfish ex; in the next, the sonic landscape has shifted to reggae-pop, where Smith is singing frankly about sex and desire. Bouncing around from song to song with wildly different sounds, this LP refuses to be pinned down to any specific label of genre or lyrical atmosphere.
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That spirit of eclecticism is not for its own sake; in creating a sound this varied, Smith is making a point. For the last decade of their career, Smith has often been perceived as the crooner-next-door: a soulful, comforting voice conveying their own heartbreak as a means of soothing their pain — and in the process, their fans’ as well.
But alongside that image has always been a sharper, more fun Smith, crafting dance-adjacent anthems of elation and anger and sex. Gloria is Smith’s proof of concept — they contain multitudes, not just the sad broken heart of the person from In the Lonely Hour.
To celebrate Gloria’s release, Billboard takes a closer look at each of the album’s 11 original tracks and ranks them (we’re not including the album’s “Hurting” or “Dorothy” interludes here — ranking two less-than-30 second tracks against the rest feels unfair). Check out our picks below:
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"Who We Love" (feat. Ed Sheeran)
On the album’s last song, “Who We Love,” Smith takes Gloria out with a tender embrace rather than an explosive finale. Ed Sheeran proves to be a good fit for the soft, queer-tinged love song, as the pair trade lyrics on each verse singing about the more mundane aspects of romance that aren’t touched on elsewhere in this project. While “Who We Love” rehashes familiar ideas from both artists’ discographies, it still champions a message that bears repeating.
Best lyric: “It’s not a feeling you can run from/ ‘Cause we love who we love”
Listen to it on Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube
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"Gimme" (feat. Koffee & Jessie Reyez)
Sam is done being coy on this late-album anthem — they want you, right now. “Gimme” thrives as a mid-album shakeup, with the singer and their special guests basking in a simple tropical-pop production while getting very real in their lyrics. Jessie Reyez’s “Gimme, gimme gimme, gimme” refrain pierces through and demands your attention, while Smith’s calm insistence on chasing a feeling and Koffee’s all-star reggae verse aggressively pushing the limits make “Gimme” that much more irresistible — even if the song doesn’t work quite as well on its own.
Best lyric: “Walk before you run/ Your eyes on my dun-dun-dun-dun/ I need you to come … closer”
Listen to it on Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube
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"Six Shots"
Gloria easily stands as Sam Smith’s sexiest album to date, and were it not for some of the lyrics, “Six Shots” would maybe the most seductive song the singer has ever shared. Over a spine-tingling guitar line and a simple ’90s R&B beat, Smith’s voice hits peak sultriness throughout this thrilling track. But if you take a listen to the lyrics, you hear the story of a person struggling with their own history of heartbreak. It’s a feat for Smith to reel you in with their lusting voice, and then declare that “I’m the dark type/ Forever lonely.” Smith may say that “there’s no loving me,” and yet “Six Shots” will make you fall deep under their spell.
Best lyric: “I’m like a whiskey/ You can feel it hit so strong/ But taste so sweet”
Listen to it on Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube
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"Love Me More"
“Love Me More” is a perfect introduction to the concept of Gloria. Charting Smith’s journey from “cry[ing] myself to sleep at night” to “not hurting like it did before,” this buttery jam provides an excellent vehicle for the singer’s incomparable voice. The production, meanwhile, just toes the line between “Old Sam Smith” and the one we see today — emotional and profound, but with a flair for fun thrown in to show just how far they’ve come.
Best lyric: “I sat with sorrow/ And eventually, it set me free”
Listen to it on Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube
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"Perfect" (feat. Jessie Reyez)
As established in “Love Me More,” self-love is not a destination, but a journey. “Perfect,” an early album pseudo-rock anthem, stands out as an ode to regression — that one night amidst your journey to acceptance where you just can’t help but fall into old routines. The addition of Jessie Reyez to this dark pop chorale proves to be a winner, as the pair sling verses back and forth at one another about their misadventures getting back into the nightlife scene. The unflinching honesty of “Perfect” highlights Smith’s stellar songwriting, allowing them space to admit that they’re “not perfect … but I’m working on it.”
Best lyric: “I wear my flaws like jewelry/ And I’m drippin'”
Listen to it on Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube
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"How to Cry"
Despite their ouevre as a balladeer, Smith has never exactly been one for acoustic songs. Yet with “How to Cry,” Smith strips the production down to its barest elements to get real with their ex. In another departure from their signature style, Smith doesn’t sound wistful or yearning — they sound bitter. Gone are the soft suggestions of how their heart was broken, now replaced with a stunning ode to a toxic person who left their life in shambles, all because “nobody taught you how to cry/ But somebody showed you how to lie.”
Best lyric: “All the drama that you put us through/ How amazing that it’s never you/ Who lit the fire, burnt the whole house down”
Listen to it on Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube
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"Lose You"
“Crying on the dancefloor” has been done before — but “quiet desperation at the club” might just be the newest evolution of this musical cliché. With “Lose You,” Smith dives head first into the dance genre that introduced them to the world with “Latch” — a pulsing house drum sits in the background of this club-ready track as Smith realizes they’re losing touch with the lover they came with. As the beat picks up, so do Smith’s pleas for love, making this a thrilling addition to the star’s already-stellar dance pantheon.
Best lyric: “You say you’re feeling the pressure/ And you’d be better with me out of your life/ But baby that ain’t happenin’ tonight.”
Listen to it on Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube
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"Unholy" (feat. Kim Petras)
There’s a reason why “Unholy” became Smith’s first Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hit after a decade of making music. Sure, the song’s virality on TikTok boosted attention, but that doesn’t account for the feverish support it got from fans, both old and new. “Unholy” is not only a bold song (we’re literally talking about a “straight” man cheating on his wife with another man), but it revels in its own nerve. A skittering hyperpop-esque beat, a feature from one of the most sought-after transgender pop singers in the industry and lyrics that are unafraid to go there prove that “Unholy” was designed to shake up what anyone thought a Sam Smith song was — and it succeeded with flying colors.
Best lyric: “Mummy don’t know Daddy’s getting hot/ At the Body Shop/ Doin’ something unholy.”
Listen to it on Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube
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"No God"
While Gloria may be an album about changing, it’s just nice to hear the evolution the sound that initially made Smith famous on “No God.” Taking a slow-burn, grooving approach to calling out their lover, “No God” oozes not only with Smith’s newfound confidence, but with an ease that they simply didn’t have before. The star’s voice is silkier than ever here, with laser-focused songwriting that aims right into the core of a lover who thinks they know better than everyone else around them. “No God” doesn’t backtrack Smith’s classic sound — it brings it to its natural conclusion.
Best Lyric: “Just because it’s your opinion doesn’t make it right.”
Listen to it on Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube
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"Gloria"
Where “Love Me More” serves as Gloria’s introduction, the penultimate titular track provides us with our thesis statement. It is also easily the strangest track on the album — amid pop anthems, R&B ballads and dance bangers, “Gloria” stands alone as an almost-religious Gregorian chant. The combination of the chorus surrounding Smith, their inimitable voice, and some truly beautiful lyrics makes “Gloria” stand tall with a message of hope and individuality. It’s all right there in the title — this song is, simply, glorious.
Best lyric: “Be yourself so loud tonight/ They’ll hear you from the stars”
Listen to it on Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube
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"I'm Not Here To Make Friends" (feat. Calvin Harris & Jessie Reyez)
In speaking with Billboard for our cover story in August last year, Smith said one of the largest inspirations for their new album was “the queer joy of it all.” Nowhere is that more readily apparent than on “I’m Not Here To Make Friends,” the delicious, late-album disco-pop banger in which Smith lets all that pent up joy come spilling out into the open. Singing to a prospective partner about how they want to “ease your appetite,” the star revels in the pure euphoria of the strings and synths surrounding them.
More important than simply sounding like a genuine pop hit of 2023 (especially with the inclusion of veritable hit-maker Calvin Harris on the track), “I’m Not Here To Make Friends” sounds like Sam Smith finally allowing themselves to have some fun. There’s no brooding, no painful recollections, no heartbroken confessions of wrongdoing — “I’m Not Here To Make Friends” is Smith taking back the narrative of their career and proudly declaring that it’s time to have a good time.
Best lyric: “I’m not the exception/ I’m a blessing of a body to love on.”
Listen to it on Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube