Sam Smith has plenty of reasons to smile, but his latest single might leave fans reaching for their tissues.
The 23-year-old singer has unleashed "Drowning Shadows," an elegant ballad he calls "the saddest song I've ever written and probably the least radio-friendly song I've ever written." The soul singer issued that warning during Zane Lowe's Beats 1 radio show, where the song premiered on Monday.
Sam premiered the song at Zane Lowe’s Beats 1 radio show on November 2, reports Billboard, sharing the “dark” ballad that he wrote way before hew blew up with his epic hit, “Stay With Me.” The release of the single coincides with the Drowning Shadows edition re-release of his debut album, In The Lonely Hour, reports Genius.
"Do I go home for nothing or stay out for more?," Smith asks on the brooding track, backed by only piano and strings. "The more I drink, the more I drown." It’s clear to see how this is an incredibly heart-wrenching, intimate tune.
Drowning Shadows is about Sam’s loneliness while living in Oval, South London. During those dark days, Sam was so desperate for company, he would force himself to go out and drink in the hopes of finding love, when he really wanted to “go home and chill.”
"I wanted to remind everyone where I come from as a songwriter and what my intent was when I was writing this album," Smith told Lowe of the track.
The singer-songwriter said he wrote "Drowning Shadows," before "Stay With Me," "I'm Not the Only One" and other early songs, but wasn't able to settle on an appropriate arrangement.
It’s quite a sad song, with a somber piano intro and sweeping orchestral strings very similar to his Spectre theme, “Writing’s On The Wall.
Sam told Zane why this “Drowning Shadows,” wasn’t included on his first album. “Something didn’t work. I thought of it recently when we were thinking about the repackage,” Sam said,” and we went in and just did it with the piano.”
With Sam happy with this new version, it’ll be available with the deluxe edition of his debut record on November 6.
Listen below.
