First Look Friday: Sam Smith - "Money On My Mind" + "Nirvana"

The UK's wonder- crooner Sam Smith is the focus of this weeks' First Look Friday with the release of his endlessly up-trot smash "Money On My Mind." The track is drenched in his powerful vocals, layered over a club-thrashing drum roll and accented with 8-bit tones looming behind the beat. Its a formidably pleasurable deception, in that the track's actually about doing it the right way, leaving superficiality and materialism behind and laying claim to love as the creative catalyst. This newly solidified king-crooner is coming in hot, for it was a less than year ago that he was a virtual unknown, grabbing the attention of the masses with his feature on Disclosure's breakout hit "Latch" earlier in the year.

Now that we're listening, it seems he's cemented himself as the UK's club-viable alternative to John Legend, and further, as the centerpiece of this compelling brand of UK soul that seems to be bleeding out of the big island across the pond. If MOMM is any indication as to what we can expect from the young vocal gunner, then we're all in for a treat. While MOMM is being billed as his debut single, we've heard a bit from Sam Smith prior. Aside from that early cut on Disclosure's record, it was just weeks ago that Sam dropped a track with his UK production buddies and a certain funk god (who may have been tapped by some funky francophone robots earlier in the year) that served as a pleasant reminder of what the UK can contribute to the boogie funk continuum. So go ahead, get on Sam Smith's level and peep his blazing club-thumper "Money On My Mind" below, as well as the visual for "Nirvana" and be sure to keep it locked to the Okay-realm, as we'll have more on the likes of Sam Smith & Co. soon.