Jamie xx - In Colour

Jamie Smith has characterised his new album as the sound of an artist stepping from the darkness into the light. It’s hardly an original metaphor but, in this case, carries a degree of literal truth, with a move to New York expanding Smith’s musical horizons. “Before the first xx record, I pretty much exclusively listened to electronica,” he said recently (Smith, aka Jamie xx, is the brooding trio’s resident producer and marshaller of beats). “Now, I listen to anything. I think the most inspiring thing is just learning more about more and more different kinds of music and becoming a fan of so many different types and so many different genres.”
Smith assembled In Colour in tandem with The xx’s forthcoming third LP and at moments it resembles a fully-fledged band effort. Romy Madley-Croft sings on the playfully rhapsodic ‘Loud Places’, which swaps the group’s crepuscular gloom for an air of carnival celebration. On ‘Gosh’, there is a hat-tip towards Jamie’s recent infatuation with hip-hop (cultivated listening to New York’s Hot 97 on his daily commute), though the track’s initial swagger quickly segues into minimalist melancholia – a trick he reprises on ‘Girl’. ”I like the contrast in making something that sounds sunny but also has an element of melancholy to it,” Smith told Rolling Stone – a statement which perfectly summarises the happy-sad dynamic that gives In Colour much of its emotional heft.
KEY TRACK: 'Gosh'