“Latch” by Disclosure featuring Sam Smith

song info

    “Latch” by Disclosure featuring Sam Smith (official video) is a pop song.

link to the static song information page for this song:
http://www.thissideofsanity.com/music/songs/la/latch.php

    Summary quotation from Wikipedia:

    “Latch” is a song by British garage-house duo Disclosure, featuring vocals from Sam Smith. It was released as a digital download in the United Kingdom on 8 October 2012. The song entered the UK Singles Chart at number 26 and has peaked at number 11. The track is the lead single from the duo’s debut studio album Settle (2013). The song was released as their debut single in the United States on 4 February 2014.

Background

    Originally, Disclosure thought that “Latch” was “too weird for the radio and not clubby enough for the clubs” because of its time signature. “It’s in 6/8 time — not even 4/4, which is house’s tempo.” When first hearing of Sam Smith’s voice, Guy and Howard thought he was a woman and later were “amazed” that he wasn’t.

    Howard has stated that Disclosure is “trying to bring class and soul into the songwriting … using jazz chords that have emotion instead of boring, stabby EDM triads. You can play ‘Latch’ in a massive nightclub or cover it in a jazz ensemble.”

Reception

Critical reception

    Michael Cragg of The Guardian gave the song a positive review. Jon Caramanica of The New York Times viewed the track as one of the duo’s “least characteristic” songs, describing it as “less relaxed, more ambitious, more blatantly pop-oriented, with full-bodied vocals”.

Commercial performance

    On 10 October 2012 Greg James announced that “Latch” was at number 39 on the Official Chart Update, officially entering the UK Singles Chart at number 26 on 14 October 2012. In its second week the song climbed 9 places to number 17 and climbed 5 places to number 12 in its third. It eventually peaked at number 11 in its fourth week. The song spent a total of 15 weeks within the top 40 and 32 weeks within the top 75. The song has sold over 400,000 copies in the UK alone, with it being certified gold by the BPI. This puts “Latch” among the best-selling singles to not reach the top 10 of the UK Singles Chart. The single was also certified gold by the Federation of the Italian Music Industry. The song has so far climbed to number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, becoming the duo’s first Top 40 hit in the United States. At the mid-way point of 2014, Latch reigns as the top selling dance/electronic Digital Songs according 990,000 to Nielsen SoundScan.

Music video

    A music video to accompany the release of “Latch” was first released onto YouTube on 9 October 2012 at a total length of four minutes and seventeen seconds. The video was directed by Ross McDowell and Ben Murray of London’s Bullion Collective, and features scenes of several couples embracing. The video has been viewed 54 million times as of July 2014.

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