Twelve million copies of a debut album can feel less like a triumph and more like a trap. The British singer and songwriter Sam Smith knew that pressure when work began on The Thrill of It All, the follow-up to the record that made them a global star. On November 3, 2017, the album came out in the UK.
That second album arrived on Capitol Records. The same day, its second single, One Last Song, was sent to British radio, and the record shot to the top of the UK Albums Chart. The question was whether Smith could repeat the success without repeating the formula.
A diary instead of a blockbuster
Smith had no interest in chasing another blockbuster pop statement. The first album, In the Lonely Hour, had sold 12 million copies worldwide, but for the new record Smith told Billboard the goal was something personal, closer to a diary than a big pop album. That instinct shaped everything that followed. The recording sessions took place at RAK Studios in London, with a long list of producers including Steve Fitzmaurice, Jimmy Napes, Malay, Tyler Johnson, StarGate, Emile Haynie and Timbaland. Fitzmaurice and Napes also served as executive producers. The whole record runs thirty-five minutes and thirty-eight seconds, a compact frame for such an emotional set.
The lead single Too Good at Goodbyes arrived before the album and went to number one in the UK, while reaching the top 4 of the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States. It was a ballad built on restraint, and it told listeners that The Thrill of It All would not try to outrun its predecessor with louder hooks.
Soul, gospel and the trip to Iraq
The record itself mixed soul, gospel, pop and contemporary rhythm and blues, and nowhere was that blend more striking than on Pray. The song grew out of a trip Smith took to Iraq with the charity War Child, and its gospel elements were shaped with the producer Timbaland. A promotional version of Pray appeared before the album, and a later version with the American rapper Logic followed in 2018.
Critics could not agree on whether the intimacy worked. The album earned a score of 72 out of 100 on Metacritic, with The Daily Telegraph praising Smith's voice as otherworldly and Rolling Stone placing the record at number 10 on its list of the 50 best albums of 2017. But The Guardian argued the album could have been more powerful with less polish, and The Observer dismissed it as sadness by template. Nick Levine of NME compared Smith to Adele, noting that both found success through emotional ballads. French outlet Melty placed the album among the ten best pop albums of the year.
The centrepiece was Him, a gospel drama addressed to a judgmental father. It was the kind of song that made the diary comparison feel literal, and it gave the album an emotional weight that a simple pop sequel would have lacked.
The commercial answer came fast. In the first week in the UK, The Thrill of It All opened at number one with 97,328 equivalent units, including 83,637 sales. It was Smith's second chart-topping album in the UK and, at that moment, the fifth-biggest opening of 2017. The next week it slipped to second place with 52,781 units, then returned to the top three weeks later. In the United States, the album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 with 237,000 equivalent units, marking Smith's first American chart-topper and their strongest first week there. The album was released on physical formats such as CD and LP, as well as through streaming services including Apple Music, Spotify, Deezer and Tidal. In Canada it opened at number one on the Canadian Albums Chart with 16,000 equivalent units, including 9,500 copies. The record also debuted at number one in Ireland and Scotland, while in Australia it opened at number two on the ARIA Albums Chart. The tour behind the album ran from March 2018 to April 2019, and according to Billboard it grossed 86.1 million dollars from 1.07 million tickets sold across 94 shows. Combined with the tour, Smith's career earnings reached 102.7 million dollars from 1.4 million tickets sold.
Nine years on, The Thrill of It All stands as the moment Sam Smith chose the diary over the stadium, and still filled the stadium anyway.
Nine years on, The Thrill of It All stands as the moment Sam Smith chose the diary over the stadium, and still filled the stadium anyway.