Sam Smith's gorgeous vocals unfortunately cannot save this song from its too simplistic melody line and extremely repetitive lyrics.
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Following the very successful releases of ‘Dancing with a Stranger’ and ‘How Do You Sleep’, Sam Smith released the title track to their upcoming album, To Die For, on Valentine’s Day.
Despite the popularity and success of the two other singles from this album, I found both strayed too far from the Sam Smith many fell in love with, the Smith from their most recent album, The Thrill of It All (2017). However, it is safe to say that ‘To Die For’ proves that they are not quite ready to leave the emotional ballads behind, with this single demonstrating a somewhat similar sound to those in ‘Palace’ from the last record.
With the emotional voice notes of ‘It is if everyone dies alone’ and ‘Does that scare you?’ opening the song and punctuating the melody throughout, the raw passion and loneliness demonstrated in this song is brought to the forefront immediately.
Although the melody line is rather simple and repetitive, ‘To Die For’ is extremely catchy, and its simplistic nature draws attention further to the beautiful, smooth vocals of Sam Smith. I am sure that they could sing absolutely anything and still make it sound gorgeous.
However, it is impossible to overlook the simplicity of this single, which ultimately overrides the gorgeous vocals and constructs a rather dull song altogether. The lyrics are sweet, but far from distinctive. So, although this single is more enjoyable than other singles from the upcoming album, ‘To Die For’ does not do justice to Smith’s vocal talents at all, rendering it rather unmemorable.
‘To Die For’ is available now via Capitol Records UK.
