In Waves CD

In Waves is Jamie xx's second full-length solo album, and the patented thematic follow-up to 2015's In Colour. The former album marked the height of a certain formative summer in dance music history, in which the UK at large opened its eyes to the potent admixture of its various musical heritages and seemed to meld them into one (perhaps this was best represented by Jamie's membership of a chart-topping indie band, and nonetheless simultaneous indulgence of solo beatcraft and DJing, which saw to a technicolour crock of collaborations we never thought possible, such as with Gil Scott-Heron and Young Thug). In Waves, however, posits the question of where we might've gone since. Channelling as ever Jamie's essential "soft-rounded" drums and clean, yet sample-heavy embellishments sifted from various classic soul and funk records, In Waves nonetheless sacrifices the sentimental ballad-dirges heard on In Colour for a more club-bound portrayal of a comparatively disinhibited night out. Livelier than In Colour, we're transported right on back to a certain kind of dancefloor, one that we'd felt remiss of for almost a good half of the decade in between the two albums.