Handing the production reins to Jim Abbiss (Adele, Arctic Monkeys, Bombay Bicycle Club) with song-development support from long-standing confidante, John Kettle, the band turned disadvantage – performing on successive tours and on bigger stages with threadbare technical support, much as they had done in pubs – into advantage. Searching out the tools to make a statement album, the version of The Lathums that had made fields and big tops dance with just bass, guitar, drums and voice ensured that every second of From Nothing To A Little Bit More would benefit from the new opportunities afforded to them as an established, chart-challenging band.
Such is The Lathums’ confidence having seen ‘the rules of the game’ afresh and realising how much more they could achieve in their sound, a re-recording of early, self-released EP fan-favourite, Crying Out, makes its way onto album two, four years after its initial reveal. The Lathums is now a band improving on their past as well as crafting swaying, accomplished classic Motown girl group, finger-click and handclap-punctuated songs like I Know, rapid-fire, jangle-pop word-bombs such as Facets and the alluring, slow motion mariachi slither of Land And Sky.
Perhaps as heart breaking and breath-taking as any song Moore has written, album closer, Undeserving puts listeners in the close company of the 22-year-old boy-turned-man as he candidly sings of the route he’s taken and those that have joined him on the journey. As unvarnished and candid as any song can be, every line is left to be picked up by fans, understood and cherished. “It’s like I’m talking to people about what they’ve just listened to and what it all means,” Alex says. “It was like I was talking to someone. It all just fit…it freaked me out a bit.”
The Lathums follow up the release of Lucky Bean and From Nothing To A Little Bit More by heading immediately out on tour to some of the UK’s most prestigious venues including London’s Roundhouse and Manchester’s ornate Albert Hall.
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