David Latto has been making records since 2010. In 2016, he sensed he had hit a wall. The music he was making at the time didn’t ring true for him so he walked away from the business for two years. However, when the muse is strong, it’s hard to fight, and hence we have this superb piece of Americana.
‘Show Me How To Feel’ is five, meditative, melodic, and personal songs that ingratiate themselves into your psyche. You will find yourself humming along if not learning the words on repeat play.
The title track, ‘Show Me How to Feel’, sets a high bar and ponders the difficulties of communication in a relationship.
I don’t talk about all that much but if I don’t start talking I’m a dead man walking. It’s not easy when you don’t have words. Every feeling’s foreign. Baby I’m at war inside.
‘Blood and Whiskey’ is a rumination on a friendship that pervades through good and lean times, when real friends are:
Brothers in everything but name. The only thing I know with certainty is when I’m with you, I know you’re with me.
‘Better Way’ is a hymn to persistence, and battling through the odds, while ‘Haunt Me’ is a remembrance of a former love, seen from the rosy glow of years of distance.
Closing song ‘Losing You’ is a fight to keep love alive without a plan or a map of how to do so. Featuring David’s soft very expressive voice against chiming guitar, this EP has already defined a “Latto” sound that is both easy on the ear and lyrically weighty to draw the listener in.
Perhaps the only complaint is it is not a full album. Still, on the basis of this offering, that pleasure awaits us down the line.
‘Show Me How To Feel’ is released on 25th October 2019.