Sam Smith: Tiny Desk Concert

Stephen Thompson | September 29, 2023 What you’ve got here is a perfect 20-minute distillation of The Sam Smith Experience: The Grammy-winning 2014 ballad that kicked off the singer’s career (“Stay With Me“), a sleek dance-pop banger (“How Do You Sleep“) and a chart-topping dollop of debauched hedonism (“Unholy“) bundled together with “Lay Me Down,“ in which Smith performed a gorgeous duet with LaDonna Harley-Peters. From the stately to the louche and bawdy — Smith even introduced “Unholy“ with a perfect summation of their recent artistic direction: “Let’s get saucy!“ — it’s all here. Performing with an 11-person choir and two instrumentalists — sadly, Kim Petras wasn’t there to emerge from between Smith’s legs as if she were being birthed — Smith brought an overflowing bag of tricks to the proceedings. But what really shone through was a sense of movement: Each song swayed and played effervescently, centering Sm