Drowning Shadows

Album: In the Lonely Hour (Drowning Shadows Edition) (2015)
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Songfacts®:

  • Co-written by Sam Smith and Fraser T. Smith (Adele's "Set Fire to the Rain") and produced by Jimmy Napes and Steve Fitzmaurice, this song predates many of the songs on In The Lonely Hour, including his breakout hit "Stay With Me."
  • The tune was re-recorded for the album's re-release. "I always loved it, but something didn't happen right with the production when we were going through different versions of it," Smith told Zane Lowe on Beats 1. "Something didn't work. I thought of it recently when we were thinking about the repackage, and we went in and just did it with piano."
  • The saddest song Smith has ever recorded, it was inspired by literal and metaphorical crossroads which Smith encountered when getting a taxi back from the recording studio: "One road would lead to gay clubs I used to go out to, and the other road would go home," he said. "I was in such a lonely, sad place when I was writing this album that sometimes, I'd literally have to choose. The lyric is, 'Do I go home for nothing or stay out for more?'"

Comments: 1

  • Sherry Guss from UsaAs a new blessed admirer of the amazing Sam Smith I say thank you England for sharing him with us.
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