Sam Smith has revealed his next album will be about “queer joy”.
Speaking to Billboard for their cover story on Thursday, the Stay with Me singer opened up about what their upcoming album will entail.
Though the pop star is “not going to say any names of them (songs) yet”, stressing the record is still a work-in-progress, they did share details about the tone of the album.
Billboard described the demos played for them as “jubilant”, with “dance-pop kiss-offs” and “choral expressions of elation” – a change from Sam’s earlier “heartbroken torch songs”.
Of their new project’s main theme, Sam explained, “I think joy for me, and for a lot of queer people, is quite a dangerous place… We’re all masters of pain, and I think it’s actually a very courageous act to step into the queer joy of it all.”
The artist also detailed how they’ve been more involved in the production of this album than in earlier projects.
“For the first time I think in my career, I really just stepped into the room and said, ‘I want to learn how to produce more. I want to vocal arrange more than I have. I want to be more involved in everything,'” Sam said. “Obviously, I’ve been involved in everything since the beginning, but now I’ve just grown up a bit.”
Sam’s as-yet-untitled album, the follow-up to 2020’s Love Goes, has not been assigned a release date.