Photo credit: Shervin Lainez

In his latest move since the release of 2023’s sophomore collection, Reflections, bandleader of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Louis Cato has returned with an initial follow-up to his last eight-piece deliverable, exclusively sharing “Why Try Love” single and music video with Relix. Visually awakened by scenes of everyday life, the number lyrically delves into the quantification of love and the human instinct to apply concern and commentary to unnecessary facets of heartfelt devotion. 

“This song at its core is a contemplative rabbit trail, pondering the eerie juxtaposition that is the spark and collapse of a meaningful love. If you zoom out though, the song also reveals a broader social commentary: how we humans collectively give the least priority to the most important parts of our existence, and how thousands of years of this have left us wondering how our cultures got so turned around and upside down in the first place,” Cato told Relix. 

Acoustic splendor, “Why Try Love” hangs to Cato’s questioning, “​​How do we end up so far away…from where we began?/ Where we began,” the subsequent follow up to a rumination of themes related to pondering the existentialism of affection, “Why do you try to deny our love,  what we can achieve?/ Do you not still believe?/ Don’t you remember the embers of magical flames?” 

The official music video, filmed and edited by Colby Groves, complements Cato’s lines and reflects the intent behind the lyrics. The artist wanders through his current home base, New York City, pausing with consideration at street corners, mulling reality and saving space for the simple things: spring’s first bloom, a smile from a stranger, the simple moments that prove most human.