In Colour// Jamie xx
From the moment it was released in June, the highly anticipated debut album from The xx band member turned producer Jamie Smith was always going to be a strong contender for this year’s Mercury Prize. But what makes this eleven-track homage to the nostalgia of raves-past so special, is its ability to simultaneously look to the future.
Substantially more upbeat than Smith’s work with The xx, In Colour exists a perfect party soundtrack, due to the charged energy of ‘Gosh’ as the opening track, as well as ‘I Know There’s Gonna Be (Good Times)’, featuring the strong team of American rapper Young Thug and Jamaican MC Popcaan. Yet, the record doesn’t venture into the jarringly lairy world of most modern dance music, instead acting as an apt reflection of Jamie xx’s introvert tendencies.
Enlisting the vocal abilities of fellow The xx bandmates Romy Madley-Croft and Oliver Sim, Smith has also produced the melancholy sounds and husky lyricism of ‘Loud Places’ and ‘Stranger in a Room’, which exist as a nod to the darker and more isolated side of being ‘All Under One Roof Raving’, so to speak.
When talking of In Colour, the inclusion of atmospheric dubby interludes cannot go unmentioned. These tracks, enveloped in samples of hollow chatter from early 90s London pirate radio make this record so original and gritty, they have the ability to transport you to the heart of a rave typical of the era from which the samples have been taken.
It’s this ingenious trio of emotive lyricism, authentic sampling and the characteristic Jamie xx sound which make the London boy’s first offering of In Colour such a poignant and fresh record, undoubtedly a worthy contender for this year’s Mercury Prize.
Words by Rebecca Rhodes
@rebeccaxrhodes