A debut album from a modern colossus of the British music scene. Out 19th of June on Sony Music.
Myles Smith is less an artist than a cultural phenomenon at this point. As a teenager in Luton he would cover Ed Sheeran, Coldplay and Mumford and Sons in local acoustic nights and he has certainly learnt a thing or two about why each has a huge following along the way. Smith has reached this point through hard work and a better understanding of how to navigate the strange new world of music in the social media age than many. A big record label being willing to back him from incredibly early on didn’t hurt either.
It was ‘Stargazing’ that changed everything. Whilst it didn’t reach number one in the UK singles chart, it was officially the biggest single of 2024 by the end of it, due to hanging around forever. In each decade you can define dominant sounds that large numbers of bands feed into. It is the lucky handful that get to rule those defining sounds and get remembered beyond long after their peers have faded out of view. ‘Stargazing’ absolutely defines the sound of the mid-twenties with its slightly country and western undertones, uplifting vocals and acoustic guitar and clapping underbelly. He stuck close to the template with other monster tracks like ‘Nice To Meet You’ and a canny appearance with fellow surfer of the zeitgeist Shaboozey, in ‘Blink Twice.’
This debut album, following on from a couple of EPs and a few singles is effectively its own special edition. There are two discs. The first is the most recent work, the second rounds up some of his biggest hits to date and what a little compilation that makes for!
There is room to discuss the merits and weaknesses of his musical style, but what isn’t up for debate is that Smith is an above average wordsmith. He is a very intelligent young man who completed a degree in sociology. In interviews he has discussed how his Mum would challenge his grammar, his sentence construction and his thought process around his songwriting. He is a fantastically observational songwriter with an eye for capturing the emotions of a moment and gathering up small details. The album kicks off with recent single with ‘My Mess:’
“Sisters crying, slamming doors, plates are flying
I was born into a fractured family, where a word could start a war
Lost my tongue when I spoke my piece
Yeah, he grabbed my shirt and bruised my cheeks
Said a man had to go toe-to-toe with a boy 13″
Smith’s confessional honesty, and therapist like approach to his life through songwriting, has made him highly effective at connecting to a wider audience. They appreciate his vulnerability and see elements of their own struggles within. Musically, ‘My Mess’ is strong, despite feeling very familiar to anyone familiar with Smith’s back catalogue. It builds to a soaring and emotional outpouring through the music. ‘Hold Me In The Dark’ has an equally soaring chorus, again not straying far from his winning musical formula.
The first new track is ‘Hate You.’ It actually shifts the template a little, though still maintaining those country clap-stomp vibes through the chorus. It dissects a relationship that has been over but where the partner keeps reappearing in different ways without ever properly committing.
‘Grandma’s Place’ is much slower, maybe his most confessional track to date. There are those wonderful little observations again. “I take off my shoes ’cause she hated the dirt and I try not to curse while she’s home. The smell of the dettol and oxtail soup. She said, “Boy, you don’t fit in your clothes.” We cover years and a whole emotional universe in the space of three and half minutes, aided by a well added choir.
‘Mary’s Song’ is further effortless world building. “She’s got one hand wrapped in a rosary and the other one carrying the groceries, that she barely can’t buy…” ‘Sertraline’ is becoming something of a cliché subject in music. There are a lot of songs under this title. Smith’s entry works once again because of his scalpel like incisions into his own emotional states.
For those wondering where the bangers are ‘Drive Safe’ then appears to remind us of Smith’s impeccable commercial instincts with its HUUUUUUGGGGGGEEEEE chorus and added Niall Horan. ‘Heaven’ has an equally widescreen chorus. ‘Dying Days’ brings it all down again, going back to the idea of “My Mess.” ‘Lifetime’ brings the first disc to a close.
The second disc starts with one new track in ‘Dublin Lights.’ It feels like a play from the Ed Sheeran playbook, though is actually a lot better than the absolute clunker that is ‘Galway Girl.’ From there on in it is monster hits all the way. ‘Stargazing,’ ‘Nice To Meet You,’ ‘Stay (If You Wanna Dance)’ and ‘Gold.’
There is no doubt Smith is a zeitgeist riding behemoth and there are some genuine monster tracks across these two discs. The only reason it isn’t coming in as a five star classic is that Smith has been driving a little too safe. He has the hit template, but he seems adverse to breaking away from it. He clearly isn’t a one hit wonder and is a genuinely talented artist. If he wants to be one of the greats though he is going to have to break out of his comfort zone at some point. He currently has two party pieces, one uptempo and one slower, that the vast majority of his output leans squarely into. Be brave, be bold, good things will happen.
Essential Tracks: ‘My Mess,’ ‘Hold Me In The Dark,’ ‘Grandma’s Place,’ ‘Drive Safe,’ ‘Stargazing,’ ‘Nice To Meet You,’ ‘Stay (If You Wanna Dance) and ‘Gold.’
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