Cosmo Lautaro – “AUTONOMIA”
19 year old Berlin-based singer, songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Cosmo Lautaro released his second album “AUTONOMIA” last Friday. We’ve already praised his four singles which came out in the last couple of months as a preview. This is really a pretty surprising output for such a young artist since it has a lot of ingredients which you would think rather belong to more experienced musicians. The album is full of soul, neo-soul, some folk, jazz, and indie pop elements with clever songwriting, a sophisticated production, and brilliant vocals. In fact, Cosmo easily changes from his natural voice, which at times can change from sexy to vulnerable, from commanding to yearning, to an equally compelling falsetto, which easily comes across on the rather mystic, slightly dramatic opening track “A Man Who Won’t Speak”.
With “Lethal”, one of the tracks which came out earlier, he delves deep into the best Eric Benet territory, except that Eric has never come up with such a brilliant composition. The part where the percussion sets in, in tandem with the guitar, is worth the trip alone here. The vocals are sublime. Just listen to him sing “come back to me-e-e-e”, and you probably get the drift with my Benet comparison. There is a lot of D’Angelo behind the very intoxicating “Misty Air”, a track which works with its superior repetitive hook where you think you want a lot more of it. Production work is outstanding throughout. I just wish some of the tracks, this one in particular, were a bit longer. More fascinating stuff appears on “Silky Secrets” which has some Stevie/Quincy/Rod Temperton influences in the verse. Really dig the tempo on this one which features guest singer Luminiah. A totally wicked tune.
After a short, jazzy “Waiting” interlude, Cosmo continues with a luscious and sensual ballad called “A Rose That Longs For Rain”. It’s another hypnotic tune with guitar and percussion supporting his longing vocals. Another winner! As is “Sombras”, a Latin-tinged bolero-esque ballad sung in Spanish. The vocals here are insanely terrific and the high standards continue with “Nothing Sweeter”, another soulful midtempo swayer with an alluring vocal performance. The way he phrases the line “I can think of no-one else” and especially how he emphasizes the word “else”, only add up to the excitement here. Cosmo concludes with a soul ballad which easily ranks among the best love paeans of this genre. “Another Day (Without You)” actually reminds me of some of the best Teena Marie ballads in style. And it has some of those early 70s Stevie synths (“Superwoman”) during the last minute of the song.
