Disclosure’s new single is the next “Latch” and it’s the only song we’ll need this summer
British brother duo Disclosure released debut album Settle in 2013, but they didn’t capture the attention of the US mainstream until the late-breaking “Latch” and the vocals of one Sam Smith. Though the album came out late that year, “Latch” didn’t rise to the Billboard Hot 100 until over a year afterward, and then it stayed on the chart for 19 weeks.
The song is now iconic on several levels, from its distorted opening cry to the audible need in Smith’s voice, which he later turned into his own superstardom through debut album In the Lonely Hour.
The “Latch” formula—an emotive and pleading male voice and bouncy synths—clearly worked, and it shouldn’t be a surprise that for album two, Disclosure is working within those parameters again.
Though “Bang That” was the first new song from the duo since Settle‘s release, it wasn’t a single off of the new album. That honor goes to “Holding On,” which dropped on Tuesday and features Gregory Porter on vocals duty. Unlike Smith, Porter is a well-established voice from the get-go: He won a Grammy for best jazz vocal album in 2014, and has been writing and performing since the ’90s. The richness of his vocals is a nice counterpoint to Disclosure’s song base, which eschews the aggressiveness of “Bang That” for something a little lighter on its feet.
The single’s art features the signature Disclosure face on what seems to be Porter’s outline — a nice nod to the longevity of the latter’s career. While details of the new album are still in the vault, the duo’s promised more music to come. And we can’t wait to hear what’s up next, but with “Holding On” firmly on loop, we’d be right to expect nothing but greatness.
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