The Thrill of it All, Sam Smith’s new album, was released on November 3. His sophomore record is a fourteen-track, forty-nine-minute journey through one of Smith’s favorite topics: heartbreak. As with his first album In the Lonely Hour, The Thrill of it All first and foremost features Smith’s voice, forgoing the electronic beats and synthesizers popular in music today. Smith is accompanied by a piano and supported by a choir, creating a lush soundscape in which he cries. His lyrics are sad, self-pitying, and melancholic, and his melodies both predictable in their tone color and astonishing in their virtuosity.
While the overall color and feel of his two albums might feel very similar, the way in which Smith deals with his subject matter is very different. In the Lonely Hour was very much a record of self-reflection. His songs were about Smith and his own experiences, his own feelings, his own loneliness. While this is holds partly true in The Thrill of it All, Smith expands his definition of heartbreak: he still sings about pining after an unrequited love and losing a love, but also addresses issues of acceptance of the LGBTQ+ community and feeling hopeless in regards to current events and disasters.
For example, in Smith’s song “HIM”, Smith tells the fictional yet relatable story of a young boy from Mississippi coming out to his father. He sings both to his biological father and his “Holy Father,” which might be assumed to be God because of Smith’s strong Catholic background. This song is especially important in this album because in In the Lonely Hour, Smith was very careful not use any pronouns when speaking about another person. He wanted to be known as “Sam Smith the singer who happens to be gay” and not “Sam Smith the gay singer.”
In a New York Times profile published two days before the release of Smith’s album, Taffy Brodesser-Akner writes that

“He [Smith] realized two things. One was that he was ready to make a second album. The other thing was that coming out as gay wasn’t enough. He now understood that every visible gay person still had a leadership role. He now understood that he wasn’t operating on his own, but that he lived in context to a community whether he’d realized it or not. No, having come out as a gay singer, he realized it was now time to come out as a gay man.”

This realization that he, as a public figure, had an important voice and a responsibility to use it is present through the whole album. His songs are still catchy and relatable; his first single “Too Good at Goodbyes” is reminiscent of “Stay With Me” and “I’m Not the Only One.” However, his goal on this album seems to be to reveal his own personal feelings in his work rather than create work to fit a generic, sad-pop-ballad mold. That realization is a solid step forward for Sam Smith, and allowed him to create a decent sophomore album. His sound may be the same, but it is on the road to change and ultimately growth.

You know this feeling. I don’t like to even say the word because the more you say it, the more power it acquires…yeah, we all know it: stress. Let me tell you though, stress is a real thing, but to feel stress is a choice. Maybe your hair starts to fall out, you can’t focus on one thing at a time because you’re mind is expelling 360 degrees around you. Maybe you break down and cry. These are alternative ways to release the tension that has piled up inside you. However, I have good news. There are other, more pleasant ways to expel these feelings…that not only cleanse your mind of life’s stressors, but add some of life’s gifts.

So here’s how to find what stress cleanser works best for you.

Start with what you are given.

We have five senses. These are our connection to the world. Reciprocally, that is how we channel ourselves to the world. When we don’t channel ourselves to the world, our minds bottle up stress. For artists, they can put their thoughts into an image. For musicians, they put their thoughts into a sound. For chefs, they put their thoughts into a taste. Gardeners can put theirs into organized smells. For athletes, they put their thoughts into feelings of physical strength.

Pick a favorite.

You blast your music through your cheap white apple headphones on the way to class? You’ll pick your sense sound. Say you’re not terribly musically inclined, but you have an appreciation for music, so your outlet may be browsing soundcloud for 20 minutes between studying for subjects. So instead of screaming into your sweatshirt, you’ll find relief AND find new music! See what works for you.

Life’s too good to be stressed.

On Saturday, October 28, I had the opportunity to watch Manhattan-based Ballet Hispanico perform at the historic Detroit Opera House. Their triple-bill program featured works made exclusively by women and told politically-charged narratives of those women’s experiences. All three pieces, beginning with “Linea Recta” by Annabell Lopez Ochoa, followed by “Con Brazos Abiertos” by Michelle Manzanaeles, and “Catorce Dieceiseis”by Tania Perez-Salas, were intelligently composed, beautifully designed, and incredibly danced by the company’s fifteen dancers.

The importance of an exclusively-female program is easily overlooked. At first glance, the dance world can seem to be a women’s world. Dance studios, classes, and companies are always looking for more boys and men to recruit and hire, enticing them with scholarships and free tuition. And after all, the legendary George Balanchine once said that, “Ballet is Woman.”

Yet, according to the New York Times, in 2016, the New York City Ballet performed 58 ballets in its season that were all choreographed by men. The Royal Ballet in London has not commissioned a woman choreographer in over a hundred years, and the Bolshoi Ballet in Russia only had one woman work on a single ballet in its season. In a different article about author Rupi Kaur’s work, New York Times writer Tariro Mzezwa concluded that “Art by women and art intended for women can be derided as common, popular and unsophisticated.” Each of the three works that were performed on Saturday night serve to challenge that statement.

“Linea Recta” by Annabell Lopez Ochoa opened with a striking image of a woman in a bright red dress. Her long, ruffled skirt swirled behind her as she started dancing, first as a soloist, and then with four men. She whirled and stomped, kicked and leaped, leading the men around the stage and then gesturing the other women to join her. United in their strength and individuality, the piece highlighted the strength in each dancer, as well as their willingness to give in to each other to create a stronger whole.

“Con Brazos Abiertos” by Michelle Manzanaeles dealt with Manzaneles’s experiences as a first-generation Mexican-American and the images and stereotypes that went along with that label. Utilizing a diverse score from bilingual spoken word to Radiohead, Manzaneles created an intimate look into cultural dichotomies that are impossible to reconcile. Perhaps the most powerful image in the piece was that of a single female dancer simply lying onstage, the majority of her body covered under a giant sombrero. Given today’s current political climate, the image was powerful and heartbreaking in its simplicity.

The final work, “Catorce Dieceisies” by Tania Perez-Salas, was the most contemporary of the three. There was no obvious Latino influence: the costumes were all flesh-toned and form-fitting, the score was Baroque. Yet, that choice in of itself is a strong assertion. In an Interview with the Detroit Free Press, company dancer Melissa Fernandez said that, “In the 1970s, it was kind of taboo to be Hispanic and a dancer…today, we can be dancers. And choreographers…it was the expression of a contemporary female voice. A female who happened to be Hispanic.” Fiery yet delicate, wild yet controlled, virtuosic yet human, Ballet Hispanico’s performance was one to remember.