Love In The First

Personnel: Latif (vocals); Teddy Bishop (various instruments, programming); French (various instruments); Greg Charley (guitar); Henry Clay (piano); Sean Garrett, Adonis, Ruff Endz (background vocals).
Producers include: Andy C, Teddy Bishop, Mechalie Jamison, D "French" Spencer, Ryan Leslie.
Latif possesses a richly soulful manner which belies his 20 years on this earth, and his Motown debut, LOVE IN THE FIRST, channels many of the icons of the famed label (most pointedly Stevie Wonder), filtering them through 21st-century production. Latif trained with one of the kings of the game, Teddy Pendergrass, and while furnished with a starkly different set of pipes, he definitely learned his mentor's nifty balance of raw sexuality and unadulterated vulnerability.
It's also clear that he's soaked in many decades of R&B hits--his first two tracks reference DeBarge's "Time Will Reveal" and Aretha Franklin-via-En Vogue's "Something He Can Feel," respectively--and expertly channels them through more modern (and very accomplished) production values. On "It's Alright," he wraps his multi-octave, never-self-consciousness tenor around an almost calypso beat, and on both that track and the opening number, "I Don't Want to Hurt You," the youthful balladeer reveals a touching lyrical sensitivity. With the subtly sexy, vocoder-infused "Without U," he manages to glide through a song that would stand proud in both the Prince and Zapp catalogues. All in all, LOVE IN THE FIRST is an impressive debut from a student of the new school of Motown.