Album Review: Sam Smith – Live In Manchester

There’s nowhere to hide when you make a recording like this. Live in Manchester captures Sam Smith at the end of what Greater Manchester-based German Shepherd Records describe as a ‘relatively fallow year’ spent mostly recording. Recorded in December 2018 at the Castle Hotel, this is a ‘warts and all’ document: the occasional missed note or quaver in the voice simply adding to the authenticity and underscoring the passion in the performance.  Alternating guitar and piano, Sam delivers a set that spans older and newer material. It also includes three covers: The Clash‘s ‘Janie Jones‘, Bruce Springsteen‘s ‘The Ghost of Tom Joad‘ and Slipknot‘s ‘Duality‘. In Springsteen and The Clash, Smith has chosen good company: there is a fellowship in this music from the street.

Live in Manchester contains moments of great understated beauty and of angry power, no song less illustrative of both than ‘Bad Water‘. A happy-go-lucky album this is not; no froth and no frills. And then, almost wilfully oddly, a singalong in established favourite ‘Some Facts‘, just to remind us that out there and almost invisible in the aural darkness is an enthused and respectful audience. This is also a beautifully recorded and produced record that captures the acoustics of the room. There is too much energy in the performance for this to be a comfortable listening experience, but the audience reaction is very low in the mix, so this becomes an intimate experience. More than anything else, this sets out Sam Smith‘s stall as a working-class troubadour whose dissatisfaction with modern living cannot be contained or constrained by the conservative forces of the music business. Uneasy listening at its best and a fine, fine album.

Live in Manchester is a special release split across two versions; a seven-track EP released across all major streaming platforms on the 25th January and a full LP of 12 tracks that will be released exclusively to German Shepherd Records subscribers. For £40 subscribers receive everything the label release digitally over 12 months plus over 40 former releases from the labels back catalogue as well as unique subscriber specials like this. You can subscribe to German Shepherd Records here