Jamie xx - In Waves
Electronic – Released September 20, 2024 – 12 songs, 44 mins
LUNDI
It’s certainly no secret at TSR that yours truly isn’t championing the EDM world. I’m far from opposed in immersing myself in the scene for a live show, but it’s safe to say the endless list of sub genres rarely play out my speakers or headphones. Aside from admiration of pioneers like Daft Punk, The Chemical Brothers and Fatboy Slim, my Spotify library had exactly one dance album saved before last week. That album was In Colour by Jamie xx. The library now has two albums, let’s break down the highly anticipated follow up In Waves.
It’s hard to develop signature traits when you only release an album every nine years, but still Jamie xx has always stood out to me as one of the great producers. His music is similar to scanning radio frequencies combining R&B, Jazz, and Soul samples with modern day electronic music sonics. His old school understanding of mixing using physical records results in silky smooth transitions of sounds you wouldn’t normally think mesh. Surely there’s some trial and error with his process and many happy accidents along the way but In Waves’ fusion of musical stylings is an extremely unique and highly enjoyable experience.
At the same time In Waves is a significant departure from his previous album In Colour. Where the predecessor was a choppy turnstile of ideas, great ideas mind you, In Waves is the seamless workings of the mastermind producer. It’s just as much an album as it is a well curated house music set. The album is void of traditional breakbeats and bass drops, curtailing that direction for more quick paced transitions and style mixture. The results are vibrant and erratic, a complete effort that aims to mimic a night in the club more so than ever succeed on the musical charts.
Pulsating synths and deep bass lines form the four on the floor tracks littered with off beat hi hats and kick drums. It’s all vaguely familiar in a sense but his creativity of using vocal samples to amplify beats or layering melodic pianos and horns over the song structures fully pushes the record forward to heights most producers can’t dream up. Even the deeper, more subtle mechanisms he employs like utilization of a ticking clock to syncopate synths and record static to help define tempo changes add a rooted charm that drives home how comprehensive this effort is. The sound design is just next level from the very foundation to the final polishing. The record is painstakingly crafted with the man at the helm never completely satisfied. This mixture of skill and determination is rarely defeated.
In Waves lands as a euphoric and intimate experience. Where most dance music is situational for my listening, Jamie xx finds room to develop songs that you can equally space out to or dissect depending on your mood. There’s an ability to get lost but also heighten the senses and invigorate the mind, which is a necessity in music for my personal enjoyment. There’s a spacious environment across the 12 songs and 44 minutes that can take a listener wherever they may please. For me it offers the perfect mixture of desire to understand and willingness to just let the music take control, ultimately an effect that happens frequently in the genres I gravitate to, but rarely in dance music. I’m not sure I can confidently say Jamie xx is the best, but for this ability he is definitely one of my favourites.
Now I know no one listens to club music for the lyrics, but I am who I am, so I’ll say the pandemic based “dance floor can save us” mantra wore me down a bit. I generally enjoyed the use of spoken word trance poetry and implementation of voice notes but whenever the record fringed on superficial pop lyricism my eyes did certainly roll. For that reason my favourite tracks are the more sample based All You Children and Baddy on the Floor, but still despite this flaw In Waves is a front to back complete listen.
In Waves lands as the most impressive electronic album in recent memory. Offering a bit of everything, Jamie xx has curated the full club experience into a single record.
Overall Rating: 8.3/10
Favourite Song: All You Children
ROZ
This week TSR pivots into the electronic side of the music landscape as the crew dig into Jamie xx and his second studio album In Waves. Jamie’s second effort comes in almost a decade since his last, which not only sets the bar for his fans and listeners but also assuredly for himself as well. As an electronic music producer myself, these are the review weeks that I cannot wait to dig into – modern dance music in an album format. Typically, I’ve found that modern dance music comes through as a wave of never-ending singles, so something such as In Waves is truly a breath of fresh air. Trying my damndest to move my subjectivity to the wayside, I put my finest set of closed-back monitor headphones on and get to work.
Electronic dance music, like all forms of music, is a genre that has its flaws. While the concept of being able to create music digitally – without need for the analog or the tangible – makes for an infinite number of possibilities and a boundless amount of potential, the music itself can leave the listener desperate for a deeper connection or feeling. When execution is poor, the music can feel cold, lifeless, and empty. The biggest challenge in the genre for producers is the ability (or lack thereof) to inject life and emotion into their music, and it is this aspect that Jamie is very, very good at.
While some electronic producers turn to sample-based production and others turn to synthesizing their own sound, Jamie xx has the innate ability to combine both forms, interweaving many of the best elements of each into one soul-filled experience. Cutting edge synthesis, outstanding sample selection, an excellent understanding of tension and release – the man's abilities within his DAW (digital audio workstation) seem limitless. This ability can be attributed not only to his decades of experience as a musician, but also to his diverse experiences throughout various subsets of music; from his success as a member of indie rock band the xx, to his collaborations with major players in the rock, electronic, pop and hip-hop scenes. His toolbox has been meticulously sharpened and perfected from the road he has taken as a professional musician, and it shows in his work.
The usual trope of electronic music becoming ‘too repetitive’ is avoided through the artist’s choices during both the composition and arrangement stages, as elements are given their own space shine while also being added and removed meticulously in order to ensure that each mix stays dynamic and interesting. Jamie’s mastery of groove is apparent throughout In Waves, whether it is in the form of hi-hats that are slightly moved off of the usual 1/16th grid or through the synthesized basslines that race across octaves well and far beyond the simple root note of the melody they trail underneath. Every kick drum is thoroughly saturated and compressed, packing a punch that gives each track what it needs to get people moving. The overall low end focus all but ensures that zero dance floors will empty when songs such as Treat Each Other Right, Baddy On The Floor or All You Children mix into a DJ’s set. Outside the box thinking is displayed on songs such as Dafodil and Breather, where usual dance constructs are torn down in favor of more experimental structures, soundscapes and techniques – a feast for the senses that is best experienced in high fidelity.
Collaborations feel effective and never seem under-utilized; featured artists such as The Avalanches, Panda Bear and Honey Dijon add their own flavors and emit their own signature sounds rather than feeling lost inside Jamie’s own. Romy Croft and Oliver Sim – fellow band members of the xx – flex their own talents all across Waited All Night and act as the tether between Jamie’s electronic music project and his indie rock career. With this, Jamie finds a way to truly combine everything he’s done up to this point in his life. Even better, he somehow does this while also forming it into a collection of infectious, dance floor hits – a remarkable task in its own right.
Nine years separated from the artists last album, In Waves is proof that quality always beats quantity. Jamie xx demonstrates once again why everything he puts out absolutely warrants your undivided attention.
Overall Rating: 8.3/10
Favourite Song: All You Children
REID
Review #135 at Too Sweet Reviews is the second studio album by UK producer, Jamie xx. His first in nine years follows his critically acclaimed debut release, In Colour (2015). My TSR counterparts have raved about it for years but I haven’t given it enough of a shot to truly appreciate. Let’s see if In Waves provides a little push to dig deeper into this artist.
An initial highlight of the work produced by James Thomas Smith is the album art and titles. He set a theme on his predecessor and followed it up on his sophomore record. That consistent approach with significant thought into the finer details is what separates the great from the good. An album is the sum of all things, including the package it comes in.
“I design all my stuff, so I ended up designing the album cover for In Colour. I wanted to have a spectrum of colors to represent all the records I put out previously, and because the album has a lot of different shades on it. I also wanted to have black and white in there, so the flip side of the vinyl is gonna be a black logo, and the frontside is white. That represents the two The xx albums. Romy designed the "x" for The xx, and I just made one leg of the ‘x’ for my artwork. It's quite simple. With the album title, In Colour, I wanted to show that we're not moody. We do dress in black, but we're also quite positive people. We've come a long way since doing those shy press photo shoots as the teenagers that we were back then.” (Jamie xx: Why Dance Music Is So Important – The Fader)
He also released the poster shown below as he prepares to embark on a 2025 promotional tour. Trying to read the cities and dates is seizure-inducing but it’d make for excellent memorabilia.
The artistic creativity extends to the music. Have you seen those Instagram accounts that visually break down a song’s creation? In Waves will be dissected in a similar fashion to emphasize the expertise on display. Treat Each Other Right was the first single and for good reason. It transitions multiple times before returning to the high pace, infectious bass it started with. All You Children should be a contender for electronic song and sample of the year as he teamed up with fellow genre kings, The Avalanches, for a song I simply can’t stop coming back to. Baddy On The Floor adds funk to the mix and on Life he paired up with a veteran of the genre, Robyn. The result is two more irresistible tracks. Breather is a six-minute, slow building, introspective banger with a robotic voice that has you drifting off to another planet. The common theme is phenomenal production and sonic engineering. Altering existing music and fusing them with his own new sounds in the fashion he does is a truly unique talent.
Jamie xx proves he belongs in the upper echelon of the electronic music scene on In Waves. He combines vibrant instrumentation and elite sampling for a collection of tunes meant for the dance floor. I will absolutely be checking out In Colour.
Overall Rating: 8.3/10
Favourite Song: All You Children