“To Die For” by Sam Smith, Sunday, October 27, 2024
A month before releasing The Thrill of It All in October 2017, Sam Smith began dating actor Brandon Flynn. Smith’s sophomore album dug into the singer’s misfortune with love and religion in a record full of soulful, almost Gospel-inspired songs. But in June 2018, Smith and Flynn seemed happy as an Instagram-official couple. Smith told V Magazine, “I’m in a relationship for the first time; I think I deserve to be happy.” But by June, the relationship had ended. Following Sam Smith’s break up, the singer began releasing singles, which were intended for a new album. First was a collaboration with Calvin Harris called “Promises” and a song, “Fire on Fire,” for the Netflix original animated limited series Watership Down based on the novel of the same name. Then Smith changed musical directions leaning into a much more pop-oriented style.
AS I WANDER DOWN THE AVENUE. Sam Smith began full pre-album promotion in 2019 starting in January. “Dancing with a Stranger” was a fresh sound featuring former Fifth Harmony member Normani. The song was a resolution to get over an ex with “somebody new.” Next Smith released the Max Martin produced “How Do You Sleep,” a danceable lullaby about deep betrayal. After releasing a fifth single to be included on their third album, a cover of Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love,” Smith released what was intended to be the title track to the album “To Die For” in February 2020. Smith ended up delaying the album from May to October, changing the title to Love Goes… out of sensitivity for the victims of the Covid-19 pandemic. “To Die For” continues on the themes of pain and loneliness in the other songs that had been released for the album. In the ballad, Smith laments about the absence of a lover stating that they “just want someone to die for.” The song samples dialogue from Jake Gyllenhaal and Katharine Ross in the 2001 film Donnie Darko. The scene sampled is when Donnie (Gyllenhaal), under hypnosis with therapist Dr. Thurman (Ross), confesses that his deepest fear is being alone.
WHILE MY WORLD’S CRASHING DOWN. Sam Smith’s masterful sample of the cult film Donnie Darko along with the creepy music video for “To Die For” got me thinking about the themes in the film and how relevant they were for the time and still relevant now. The film is set in a fairly politically conservative Catholic community in Middlesex, Virginia, around Halloween and the 1988 presidential election between George H. W. Bush and Michael Dukakis. The presidential election is a subtle motif in the film symbolizing a perceived fear of losing conservative values of the Reagan administration, contrasted with Donnie Darko’s quest for knowledge of time travel by the suggestion of an ominous rabbit that speaks to him. That thirst for knowledge causes him to question the existence of God. The film was released in theaters on October 26, 2001, eight months after George W. Bush took office. The film’s ad campaign—slated to be a Halloween psychological thriller—was pulled due to the trailer containing a plane crash—the film was cursed with timing being released a little over a month after the terrorist attacks of September 11. In 2020, the global pandemic caused Sam Smith to delay and rework the album To Die For. The year was a turning point election year, and Americans voted out of fear of incompetence of the previous administration. Halloween is once again upon us. It is also an election year. Again the world’s fears influence our votes. But this time the conservative values of 1988 look very different and the mental gymnastics one has to do to understand the difference between labels like “conservative” and “liberal” are harder to master. It’s usually not the best to vote out of fear, but this time the fear of fascism, global war, a collapsing economy, and the portension of climate change all influencing our votes like the otherworldly bunny that haunts Donnie Darko throughout the film. Sam Smith’s quest to find someone they love so much to “die for” comes from a post-1988 world in which many countries have given queer couples rights not only to exist but thrive. But in 2024, the time loop’s gravitational pull is beckoning us to go back.
Comments
Post a Comment