# Sam Smith releases When He’s Gone ahead of new album Hazel Eyes 2026-08-06T06:21:06+00:00 | India | Indian Opinion Desk Sam Smith has released 'When He's Gone,' the third single from an upcoming fifth studio album, Hazel Eyes, due out on 21 August. The track opens on finger-picked guitar before drums and backing vocals build in behind Smith's tenor, and it was recorded live without a click track. Smith has described it as showing a more melancholy side of an album built around different shades of relationships. It follows two earlier singles, 'My Guy' and 'Oh Mother,' both of which also appear on the record. Hazel Eyes was co-produced by David Odlum and Simon Aldred, with contributions from Feist and Rob Moose among the collaborators. Smith is scheduled to perform mini residencies in Mexico and the United Kingdom through September as the album's release approaches. ## Indian Opinion Analysis What can be checked here, the release date, who produced the record, and who else played on it, holds up as concrete fact. The description of how the song sounds and how it was tracked, however, comes straight from Smith, so it reads as an artist's own account of the work rather than an outside listener's judgment. Nothing in the record so far tells us how audiences or critics have responded, since the single is new and the album has not yet arrived. The scheduled tour dates show promotion moving forward, not any signal of how the music itself is being received. What would answer that open question is Hazel Eyes actually landing on 21 August, followed by whatever critics and charts then say about it. ## Coverage - RollingStoneIndia Tags: Sam Smith Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/sam-smith-releases-bluesy-lament-when-hes-gone-ahead-of-new-album-hazel-eyes/ License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources. Cite: https://indianopinion.org/sam-smith-releases-bluesy-lament-when-hes-gone-ahead-of-new-album-hazel-eyes/#story-in-brief Review state: restored archive article, accurate at time of publication, not offered to search indexes.