Sam Smith's Fifth Album 'Hazel Eyes' Lands August 21. The Guest List Looks Nothing Like 'Unholy.'

Sam Smith's fifth album, Hazel Eyes, comes out August 21 on Capitol. Smith announced it Wednesday and put the lead single, "My Guy," on streaming today.

That is the news. The more interesting part is who Smith made the record with.

Read the credits

Hazel Eyes runs 12 tracks. Smith co-produced it with Simon Aldred and David Odlum, and the guest list includes Feist, Shahzad Ismaily, Rob Moose, and The TwoCity Chorus. Much of it was built in New York, with part of the tracking done at Electric Lady Studios.

If you follow who these people usually work with, that list tells you something. Rob Moose is the string arranger behind records by Bon Iver and Phoebe Bridgers, the guy you call when you want strings that breathe instead of swell on cue. Shahzad Ismaily is a fixture of the downtown experimental scene, a bassist and multi-instrumentalist who shows up on records that prize feel over polish. Feist makes spare, hand-played folk-pop. Put them in a room at Electric Lady and you are not building another "Unholy."

That matters because "Unholy," the Kim Petras duet from 2023's Gloria, was the loudest thing Smith had ever done: a dark, club-ready stomp that hit No. 1 and won a Grammy. It pushed Smith toward provocation and dance-floor scale. The personnel on Hazel Eyes point the other direction, back toward the live-room intimacy of the ballads that made Smith a star in the first place.

Where it sits in the run

Smith's catalog has always swung between the confessional and the theatrical. In the Lonely Hour in 2014 was all heartbreak and restraint, the record that turned "Stay With Me" into a wedding-and-funeral standard. The Thrill of It All and Love Goes widened the sound. Gloria turned up the volume and the camp. A press release calls Hazel Eyes "a heartfelt ode to the city of New York which Sam now calls home," which reads like a return to the quieter mode, this time routed through a new city and, by Smith's own account, a relationship.

Smith, who is non-binary and uses they/them, said the album took more than three years and called it their most personal yet. Worth a grain of salt: every artist calls the new one their most personal. The useful detail is the three years and the company they kept.

About the single

"My Guy" was co-written by Smith with Feist and Ismaily, and the press framing is plain: a love song about being deeply in love. The album also folds in two songs Smith already released, "Love Is A Stillness" and "To Be Free." There is a music video, and Smith has live dates lined up, including an appearance over NYC Pride weekend.

The single dropped only hours ago, so the verdict on whether the indie-leaning cast actually reshapes Smith's sound or just decorates it will have to wait for the full record. But the bet is legible from here. After the biggest, brashest hit of their career, Smith hired a band of players known for warmth and restraint and went to make a New York love album. August 21 is when we find out if it lands.