Sam Smith has shared a cover of Cyndi Lauper’s classic, “Time After Time,” from their new live album, Love Goes: Live at Abbey Road Studios, which arrived March 19th.
Smith turns in a faithful rendition of Lauper’s 1983 classic as the backing band captures the original’s slick but tender instrumentation. Smith, meanwhile, keeps their vocals soft but injects just the right amount of passion and poignancy on the indelible hook: “If you’re lost you can look and you will find me/Time after time.”
Along with the cover of “Time After Time,” Smith shared a 20-minute conversation with Lauper. At the start, the pair discussed “Time After Time,” with Smith saying that while the song has always filled them with melancholy and longing, “It just made me so happy to sing.”
Lauper then offered up some high praise for Smith’s cover, saying, “When I was listening to your string arrangement, there were those wonderful, glorious romps through it, and that makes it almost spiritual.”
Sam Smith has shared a cover of Cyndi Lauper’s classic, “Time After Time,” from their new live album, Love Goes: Live at Abbey Road Studios, which arrived March 19th.
Smith turns in a faithful rendition of Lauper’s 1983 classic as the backing band captures the original’s slick but tender instrumentation. Smith, meanwhile, keeps their vocals soft but injects just the right amount of passion and poignancy on the indelible hook: “If you’re lost you can look and you will find me/Time after time.”
Along with the cover of “Time After Time,” Smith shared a 20-minute conversation with Lauper. At the start, the pair discussed “Time After Time,” with Smith saying that while the song has always filled them with melancholy and longing, “It just made me so happy to sing.”
Lauper then offered up some high praise for Smith’s cover, saying, “When I was listening to your string arrangement, there were those wonderful, glorious romps through it, and that makes it almost spiritual.”
Smith’s cover of “Time After Time” and the rest of Love Goes: Live at Abbey Road Studios was taken from their only live performance of 2020, which was recorded at Abbey Road with a full band. The 13-song set primarily features songs from Smith’s 2020 album, Love Goes — including a collaboration with Labrinth on the title-track — although it also boasts reinterpretations of early hits like “Lay Me Down” and “Stay With Me.”einterpretations of early hits like “Lay Me Down” and “Stay With Me.”
Smith’s cover of “Time After Time” and the rest of Love Goes: Live at Abbey Road Studios was taken from their only live performance of 2020, which was recorded at Abbey Road with a full band. The 13-song set primarily features songs from Smith’s 2020 album, Love Goes — including a collaboration with Labrinth on the title-track — although it also boasts reinterpretations of early hits like “Lay Me Down” and “Stay With Me.”
MUSIC PREMIERES
Lykke Li didn’t hold back when speaking about the making of her sixth studio album, ‘The Afterparty’, during a listening session in Los Angeles earlier this year. “Let’s talk about the album. It was a motherfucker to make,” she admitted to the crowd. While balancing motherhood, the chaos of modern culture shaped by Trump and AI, and her own desire to create something more “extroverted, impulsive and chaotic” than ‘EYEYE’, as she previously shared with NME, the Swedish alt pop star arrived at a headspace that “feels like it’s 4am and the sun is going to rise”. The record captures that blurry final moment before regret, exhaustion and reality settle in, which makes it even more emotional considering she has hinted this could potentially be her final album.
There is something fitting about how brief the project feels. With only nine tracks running across 24 minutes, it never overstays its welcome. Lykke immediately drops listeners into the atmosphere with opener ‘Not Gon Cry’, painting a picture of those lonely early morning hours with the line, “No angels here tonight, no dancing queens.” Alongside the shadowy pulse of ‘Happy Now’ and the twisted disco energy of ‘Lucky Now’, she revisits the emotional yet dance driven spirit of her earlier material while blending in the sharper, more confident attitude heard on ‘So Sad, So Sexy’ and the shimmering influence of her 2019 Mark Ronson collaboration ‘Late Night Feelings’.
The emotional fallout begins to settle in quickly. ‘Famous Last Words’ carries a lush orchestral sadness as Lykke reflects on lessons that only came after years of chaos and late nights, confessing, “I had to crash and burn to tell the tale.” Then comes ‘Future Fear’, a delicate acoustic track with robotic textures that stares directly into anxiety and uncertainty with the chilling question, “I’m going to a dark place, do you need anything?” Meanwhile, ‘So Happy I Could Die’ glows like sunrise after a sleepless night, holding onto fleeting moments as she sings about “slipping through the hourglass”.
Throughout the album, Lykke Li vividly captures the beauty and wreckage of reckless nights with the vulnerability that has always defined her music. On ‘Sick Of Love’, she channels heartbreak into revenge, wanting to “make you beg for it” after rejection in a way that feels spiritually connected to Robyn’s ‘Dancing On My Own’. One of the strongest moments arrives with ‘Knife In The Heart’, a track that fully embraces her desire to become the “rock god” and “fuck boy” she spoke about, firing back at anyone who tries to tear her down with the words “you can spit, you can walk on me” while delivering one of the catchiest songs she has created in years.
Closing track ‘Euphoria’ leaves behind the same bittersweet feeling that runs through the rest of the album. With sweeping strings, pulsing beats and emotional intensity, Lykke Li reminds listeners that nothing lasts forever as she sings, “Player play your song, waste the night away”. Like the fading energy of the perfect night out, ‘The Afterparty’ ends in a haze of beauty and uncertainty. If this truly is her farewell, she leaves with one final intoxicating statement, though it still feels like there could be another chapter waiting.
