Anyone with any sort of interest in music has probably heard of Abbey Road. From The Beatles and Aretha Franklin to Adele and Lady Gaga, this iconic studio has hosted all manners of pop royalty. And in 2020, they played host to that year’s only live concert by Sam Smith, meant to fill the Covid-induced void left by the touring that should have accompanied their third studio album Love Goes.
Sam Smith was already set to be remembered as one of the defining artists to serenade Generation Z and their appearance at Abbey Road further cements this. True, the live-streamed performance itself was reportedly plagued with technical difficulties, souring the experience for many, but the show effectively outlives these setbacks by evolving into the subsequent live album, Love Goes: Live At Abbey Road Studios.
Throughout their career, Sam Smith has held little back in their cataloguing of love, loss, and heartbreak. Love Goes: Live At Abbey Road Studios is no exception. It is unapologetic in its sentimentality – a sentiment clearly influenced by the track selection. This album is a mixture of songs from Love Goes – such as hits ‘Diamonds’ and ‘Dancing With A Stranger’ – and earlier successes like ‘Lay Me Down’. Such unapologetic emotionally, coupled with callbacks to Smith’s past achievements, comes across as a subtle but bold middle finger to those who keep loudly wishing that they’d shut up and go away (such trolls were particularly rowdy after the singer came out as non-binary in 2019).
Celebrating the Old and the New
Throughout the album, both old and new songs are updated with new arrangements. That said, one of the beauties of a live vocal performance is that you often get a refreshingly different and more authentic sound to that filtered through a recording studio. Add live instruments and backing singers and the whole thing becomes a far more richly layered and beautifully textured version of itself. In this case, it really is satisfyingly close to having Smith’s dulcet tones in the room with you, making for a surprisingly comforting experience – the aural equivalent of a soothing hug.
“Smith wants you, clearly, to appreciate every single note of the hit which helped propel them to stardom”
Surprisingly, because feel-good isn’t quite Smith’s area and, true to form, they spend most of this album doing what they do best; crooning out soulful, often tragic ballads, usually testaments to doomed and lost love. Grieving heartbreak anthem ‘For The Lover That I Lost’, for instance, is just as cathartically good as always. Still, it is the rearrangements that make things really interesting. Especially impressive is ‘My Oasis’, which goes from the just-ok three-minute original with Burna Boy to a sweeping, five-minute atmospheric experience, bookended by the simple yet sweet recitations of actress and poet Jade Anouka. Staple hit ‘Lay Me Down’, meanwhile, is slowed right down and becomes a duet, with Smith and an uncredited vocalist luxuriating in every chord. This is dialed up to 11 with ‘Stay With Me’, in contrast to the relatively brisk beat of the original. Smith wants you, clearly, to appreciate every single note of the hit which helped propel them to stardom.
Wavering Energy
At times, though, the energy falls flat or at the very least peaks too early. Smith’s cover of ‘Time After Time’ exemplifies this: it is a heartfelt and worthy tribute to Cyndi Lauper’s classic, but it peaks around the second chorus and doesn’t really go anywhere afterwards. The issue is even more noticeable with the high-energy numbers. Smith’s performance of Calvin Harris’ ‘Promises’ in particular adds basically nothing to the original on which they featured. “We’re gonna turn Abbey Road into a gay bar right now” Smith promises during the intro. Sadly, they don’t turn it into an especially exciting one.
“It’s a little formulaic and flags in places, but on the whole, it’s a solid heartstring-tugging comfort blanket”
It’s understandable, in short, that for some the music couldn’t save the “technological nightmare” that the concert became. Still, for the soulful pop connoisseur, Love Goes: Live At Abbey Road Studios is still a perfectly worthy acquisition. It’s a little formulaic and flags in places, but on the whole, it is a solid heartstring-tugging comfort blanket, a welcome antidote to the lethargy and emotional numbness that has plagued us throughout lockdown. And Smith, for their part, is certainly worthy of their ranking among the ‘greats’ that their use of the historic studio seems to claim.
The full album can be found here.
Emma Curzon
Featured image courtesy of SER Comunicación on Flickr. Image license is available here. This image has in no way been altered.
