4.5/5 stars
In Colour is an amazing album. This speckled musical jewel finds the sweet spot between Jamie Smith’s work as arguably the world’s coolest DJ and his day job as a member and producer of The xx.
‘Sleep Sound’ sees Smith cherry-pick the best parts of the underground club world and distil them into four minutes. It’s a deeply tonal song, featuring marimba and kettledrum, as well as heavily phased vocals. While ‘Sleep Sound’is essentially underground, lead single ‘Loud Places’ (featuring xx vocalist Romy Madley-Croft) is a stunning celebration of pop sensibilities. A cheeky cowbell (or is it a half-full jar of water?) tinkers over the top of deep piano chords as Croft’s breathy voice intones the phrases of the verse. The melancholy aesthetic then gives way to a seriously uplifting chorus. The xx’s other vocalist, the richly casual Oliver Sim, makes an appearance on the brooding electro ballad ‘Stranger In A Room’, which is almost completely driven by the ebbs and flow of his vocal line.
There’s little to fault on In Colour. The musicality is so strong that this record could well evade the tendency for exceedingly trendy albums to date within two to three years of their release.
Jamie xx’s In Colour is out through Young Turks/Remote Control.
