Almost 10 years since his latest solo project, English musician and DJ Jamie xx released his second solo album, “In Waves,” on Friday, Sept. 20. He is best known from his band, The xx, with Romy Madley Croft and Oliver Sim. Jamie has also collaborated with artists like Tyler, The Creator and Drake. Furthermore, his first solo album, “In Colour,” was released to wide critical acclaim in 2015. Therefore, “In Waves” was a widely anticipated event within the music world.
Jamie returned with 44 minutes of club bangers, full of choppy and sped-up vocal samples, along with up-tempo house beats and a whole bevy of featured artists. These range from electropop star Robyn, EDM group The Avalanches as well as his bandmates from The xx. This was the first Jamie xx album I have listened to and one of my first forays into dance music in general.
Musically, the beats throughout the album are similar, but I don’t really care because they go hard. A notable example is “Breather,” which has a great intro punctuated by the loud, thumping drums. This song is a standout in this album: a beautifully crafted six-minute masterpiece that commands your attention the whole way through, with its space-sounding synths, harsh beats and lyrics taken from a yoga video. This song reminds me a lot of Slowthai’s “Yum” both in the beat and its lyrical content. “Treat Each Other Right,” the only song with a music video (and a wild one at that) is carried by the thumping bass that’s all over the low end of the song.
But that doesn’t mean the album is just house beats. Jamie adds some light touches to the music here and there as well. The song “Baddy on the Floor” starts out with an absolute monster of an intro, before eventually fading away to let a piano into the center of the mix, keeping pace until the beat comes back harder than ever. Near the end of the album, synths come out in full force. “Life” is a pure showcase of this great horn sample taken from “The House of The Rising Sun” by Revelación. “Life” consists of Robyn and the horns trading places for the main focus of the song. For me, it’s a toss-up between “Breather” and “Life” for the best song off this album.
In the lyrics department, there isn’t much to speak of. It’s not like you’ll find the musical equivalent of “The Great Gatsby” in here, as the vocals are mostly chopped and sped up to serve a song’s rhythm. Songs like “Wanna,” “Treat Each Other Right” and “All You Children” are all good examples of repeated vocal samples that blend into the overall instrumental of the track.
“Dafodil” is probably the only track besides “Life” where the lyrics serve the purpose of storytelling, the story following two people meeting in a club. There is a small variety to the singing on this album as well; there is spoken word on the final track, “Falling Together,” and a children’s choir singing in Hebrew in “All You Children.” This also somehow leaks onto the next song, “Every Single Weekend,” leading into another children’s choir singing Christmas carols. The song “Waited All Night,” which is a reunion of The xx, finds Romy singing the title in the chorus and the first verse, while Sim raps his verse.
Overall, “In Waves” is a solid collection of club-bangers with mellow ambient soundscapes sprinkled throughout, also serving as a good dance record. Some standout tracks for me were “Breather,” “Life” and “Baddy on The Floor.” Even though I have limited experience in listening to dance music, I would wholly recommend that you listen to this sophomore effort by Jamie xx.
Rating: 4/5
Well Done.