Sam Smith Is Already Working on the Electro Follow-Up to ‘Hazel Eyes’ Album and It Sounds Wild: ‘I’m Really Hungry to Shake My…

With just a week to go before the Aug. 21 release of Sam Smith ‘s fifth studio album, Hazel Eyes , the singer told The New Yorker Radio Hour podcast this week that they’ve already begun work on LP6, and it sounds like a rager.

Unlike Hazel Eyes , which Smith said was recorded using live performers singing and playing instruments in the studio, the unnamed follow-up came about because Smith was just “inspired” to go in a different, equally alluring direction. “It’s more electro and more intense,” they promised. “I just make all different weird sounds and scream into the microphone and free myself,” said the singer known for lush, near-operatic vocals on such soaring, heartbreak ballads as “Stay With Me” and “Too Good at Goodbyes.”

But Smith also reached a chart peak with the ravenous, banging “Unholy” with Kim Petras in 2022, which hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, marking a chart peak for both acts. Describing the unbound nature of the next album, Smith said sometimes those wild screams and odd sounds, “get turned into wild things you would never imagine.”

Like Hazel Eyes , Smith said the upcoming collection is also about falling in love and being in love with their fiance , fashion designer Christian Cowan, but in a “more naughty, playful way.” They described Hazel Eyes as “this deep confession, a new traditional queer love romance album, that’s how I see it. And whilst I’ve been making that, I’m also really hungry to shake my t–ties and encapsulate … the way I feel in my relationship where I feel … I’m still 34 and I love to dance and I’m free and I’m still inspired, like, intense hyper pop electro sounds. And so I’m also doing that too.”

Hazel Eyes is the follow-up to 2023’s Gloria , which ran up to No. 7 on the  Billboard 200  and featured Petras collab megahit “Unholy.”

Watch Smith discuss their next album with The New Yorker below.