Smith’s producers do too good of a job in masking the inevitably high-tech nature of the album, and as a result the songs almost sound too perfect. Unfortunately, it doesn’t come packaged alone. Taken in a vacuum, the song is pristine, crystalline, wonderful. Why else would the melancholy major key sound so sweet? Why else would the gospel vocals come soaring in so prettily?
Sure, it’s sappy as hell, but it capitalizes on that sappiness (in large part thanks to Smith’s gorgeous voice, something I can’t stress enough here) to create a tune that’s almost celebratory in its misery. Make no mistake - “Stay With Me” is one of the finest pop songs of the year. If I sound a bit jaded here, it’s because my thoughts on this song are irrevocably colored by my thoughts on the rest of the album. It’s reasonably tragic - enough so that we can sympathize with his struggles as a young man in a cruel, cruel world, but not quite so much that we can’t actually enjoy the song while driving down the interstate. “Stay With Me” has done a fine job of appeasing most of the music press, and for good reason: the boy with the golden voice bares himself to the cutting judgment of listeners internationally, whimpering pathetically (emphasis on the pathos here - this is not meant to be a criticism) about how f ucked up he is in needing more love than what’s contained in the transitory one-night-stand he’s just had before dropping into one of the most gorgeous choruses this side of Justin Timberlake. To preemptively counteract any critical accusations that the utter hollowness of such a move clearly demonstrates the music industry big guns are interested in profit over good music and are paving a path to their own destruction and yadda yadda yadda, the minor gods in control of the radio (and therefore America’s general musical taste) have decided to drop a Sam Smith song into the fray. You’ve still got the aftereffects of the trap boom, obviously (Jason Derulo’s nonsensical “Talk Dirty to Me” and the memetically-omnipresent “Turn Down for What” stand out), but also very present are the simplistic pop-reggae of “Rude,” seemingly straight out of the late ‘90s, the classically Latin-pop-guitar-driven “Am I Wrong,” and the the-’80s-called-and-they-want-Lionel-Richie-back ballad “All of Me” leading the way for the resurgence of ostensibly analog, instrument-driven music in the charts. The fact that we’re now considering MJ and Prince “classics” notwithstanding, the song’s popularity is a pretty good indicator that the Billboard charts have shifted violently away from Pitbull-addled EDM. The most obvious (and cringe-worthy) example is MKTO’s “Classic,” bearing the flag of pop’s “return to roots” with the subtlety of a sledgehammer and a proclivity towards slickly-produced arena-fillers worshipping at the feet of Adam Levine circa Hands All Over. Review Summary: This ain't love, it's clear to see.įor those of you who don’t listen to the radio on a regular basis (and judging by the abundance of metalheads on Sputnik, it’s likely that most of you don’t), the top 40 has started moving back in the direction of a rose-tinted affirmation that the past had some darn good music.