“Too Good at Goodbyes”

Sam Smith’s humble-bragging seems misplaced on his first new song in two years. From the supple-voiced British singer’s upcoming follow-up to 2014’s In the Lonely Hour, “Too Good at Goodbyes” doesn’t so much reflect a person exceptionally skilled in ending relationships as it feels equal parts calculating and convoluted.

Smith and his past collaborator Jimmy Napes crafted this latest track with Norwegian uber-hitmakers Stargate. Gospel choir? Check. Music that won’t lead to plagiarism accusations? There are only so many chords, but check. Smith has said the song is based on his own life, and it starts out hushed and intimate, adding fingersnaps, strings, and the aforementioned choir while rotating the same few hooks and flaunting That Voice, Smith’s trademark.

Maybe Smith actually is quite remarkable at coldly manipulating fraught emotional situations. But as simple as the song’s punning good-goodbye conceit is, the lyrics don’t add up to all that much. “You must think that I’m stupid,” he begins, but nothing that follows indicates why that would be the case. “I’m just protectin’ my innocence,” he adds later, but if he’s such a veteran of this, how can he be that innocent? He also sings that you won’t see him cry, but after singing that he has cried before, the other times this person left him. Wait, doesn’t this make the other person good at goodbyes? Worse yet, his Nina Simone-via-ANOHNI-via-Jeff Buckley vibrato here feels as overdone as the production. There’s still hope for his next album, but this song? Boy, bye.