In Waves

by

Jamie xx

This album shows that Jamie xx is, still, a 90s bitch. In a very good way. Where his music could easily veer into pastiche and caricature, he's molded the past into something precious and sweet.

The result is a dancey electronic album with a lot of bounce. Intro song 'Wanna' touches on what The xx made on their latest album, and just jump a couple of tracks to 'Baddy On The Floor', a Basement Jaxx-wafting banger that's pure fun.

Every song feels like Jamie xx loves music and wants to convey that feeling through creation. Check out the soulful 'Dafodil', where the human voice gets looped and treated to a simple beat and occational reverb and garage-y piano; this is a track that could easily fail, but not when treated with love and a real sentiment of how to create music for the dancefloor and the mind. Suddenly, the song breaks to a near-samba-ish break to a sunny voice...

Until 'Still Summer' kicks in, an arpeggio-tinged banger, exquisitely painted with reverb, echo, and mind-bending synths. This is, to be honest, fucking great. Nearly a mix of what SebastiAn could do in a duet with Para One. This is kind of the sister track to 'Breather', a track that sounds like Orbital on speed, a sequencer, and a Roland TB-303; this track is, for me, one of the high points of the album, a track that grows and leads me into a desert place in my mind, a delightful place.

From Jamie xx's collaboration with Robyn to what he's made with The Avalanches, this album reeks of love, respect, and adoration for life. There's a lot of Black voices on the album, which for me feels uplifting on the whole; everything fits as parts of a puzzle that altogether makes for a very good album.

To me, this album makes me travel from a sweaty dancefloor to a sunny festival, from grind mode at work to a celebration of life, from something intrinsically Kraftwerk-funky to a near Jon Hopkins-kind of psychedelic electronic music.

I think this is an album that will last for quite some time. I liked Jamie xx's debut album, but I think this one has more going for it. There are fewer loops and just much more love and maturity this time around, without being boring at all. Maybe it's the feeling of the album being new, but I've listened to it three times and feel there's just no filler on the album.

It's likely that this will end up being one of my favourite albums of 2024.