Romance and New York City serve as the twin muses behind Hazel Eyes, Sam Smith‘s newly announced fifth studio LP, slated to arrive later this summer.
The vocalist and songwriter announced Wednesday (June 24) that their next album will arrive on Aug. 21 via Capitol Records. Alongside the announcement, Smith unveiled the album’s lead single, “My Guy,” a heartfelt love song inspired by the London-raised artist’s relationship and life in the Big Apple.
“This is a song that I feel I have been waiting a lifetime to write and sing,” Smith said of the soulful track. “Written with beautiful friends on a summer’s day in New York, this one fell out of the sky. In this sometimes cold and distant world, I hope you can feel the love and the closeness of this recording. I tried to capture the glow and the warmth of love in this one.”
In a press release, Smith described Hazel Eyes as one of their most personal works to date. Created alongside longtime collaborator Simon Aldred, the 12-track project also features contributions from acclaimed Canadian singer-songwriter Feist and multi-instrumentalist Shahzad Ismaily.
“This album is an incredibly special record to me,” Smith explained. “I have been writing it for over three years with a very small group of beautiful, dear friends of mine. This album is very personal, and I feel I have deepened myself as an artist through the making of it, through being a producer on the record, to walking alongside this record from the start to the finish and pushing myself at every single turn.”
The Hazel Eyes campaign began late last year with Smith’s To Be Free residency series, which launched with a 24-night extravaganza at Brooklyn’s Warsaw venue before moving to San Francisco’s Castro Theatre for a further eight shows. The intimate performances mixed Smith’s hits with unreleased material from Hazel Eyes, and featured surprise appearances from artists including Hozier, Ed Sheeran, Brandi Carlile, Sienna Spiro and Kim Petras.
Among the new songs introduced during the residency run were “My Guy,” cowritten with Feist, the sultry “Moondance,” and the country-leaning “Constant Companion.” Smith also performed the former during a recent appearance on Later… With Jools Holland in the U.K.
Smith’s 2014 debut, In the Lonely Hour, earned the vocalist four Grammy Awards, including best pop vocal album and song of the year for “Stay With Me,” which peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. They followed that success with The Thrill of It All in 2017, which reached No. 1 on both sides of the pond, and have since released a further two records: 2020’s Love Goes and 2023’s Gloria.
Hazel Eyes tracklist:
1. “Everlasting Love”
2. “Hazel Eyes”
3. “Moondance” (feat. Feist)
4. “My Guy”
5. “When He’s Gone”
6. “Thief”
7. “Love Is a Stillness”
8. “Sugar Rush”
9. “Oh Mother” (feat. The TwoCity Chorus)
10. “Constant Companion”
11. “Hold On”
12. “To Be Free”
