U.K. singer Sam Smith burst onto the scene in 2014 with the release of his debut album In the Lonely Hour, and today he returns with his new project The Thrill of It All. The 16-track album features his trio of recent singles: “Too Good at Goodbyes,” “Burning,” and “Pray.” Production is handled by Jimmy Napes, StarGate, Steve Fitzmaurice, Timbaland, and more. The Dap-Kings Horns add instrumentals to three songs, while Ed Sheeran-affiliated singer YEBBA provides the lone vocal feature.
“I went back to that great Nina Simone quote, that it is important to speak about the times you live in,“ he told Billboard in a recent interview. "I hadn’t done that; I’d just written a bunch of songs about love. So I wanted to write about how I’m now starting to open my eyes, at 25, to what is going on in the rest of the world, and that it’s not always pretty.”
