Review Summary: You're giving me disappointment
‘In Waves’ is long awaited. Having garnered fame from his work as part of The XX, Jamie XX’s 2015 solo album ‘In Colour’ received a lot of attention - and rightly so. ‘In Colour’ was a good and fun dance album. Opener ‘Gosh’ was daring and interesting. ‘Hold Tight’ and ‘The Rest is Noise’ took you on entire musical journeys in just one track. Arguably the album's high point, ‘Loud Places’ was a beautiful song about what different people might find on a night out. Overall, it wasn’t a masterpiece, but it had something to say. It was fun and danceable and although its sound was familiar, it was memorable. Now, after nine years, there's finally a follow up. Unfortunately, 'In Waves' misses the mark set by ‘In Colour’.
Opener ‘Wanna’ is a nice ambient track that expertly sets a vibe. It’s unclear what it sets the vibe for though, as it then awkwardly transitions into ‘Treat Each Other Right’. ‘Waited All Night’ features a chorus with a house bass and vocals that we’ve all heard before and both ‘Life’ and 'Baddy on the Floor' feature 70s horns samples that feel too familiar (see for example ‘F the Disco’ by Cavi). The vocal hook on ‘Life’ is “You’re giving me life” - a phrase we've recently heard on Fred Again..’s earlier albums. I’m sorry Jamie, you’re not giving me life. You’re giving me boredom.
The lyrics can be a bit cringy too. ‘Breather’ features self-help book style affirmations: “This is your moment to let go / To do something good with your body, your self / You deserve to feel good, you desеrve to feel healthy”. ‘Falling together’ is a track about the magic of dancing, but its lyrics give off ‘I’m fourteen and this is deep’: “Look again at that dancer / What the *** / But that's it / That's all there is / Us / A lonely speck in the enveloping cosmic dark”. On these two tracks, it feels like Jamie XX is attempting to imitate the recent ‘therapy house’ trend, but he misses the sincerity or authenticity to pull it off.
'Baddy On the Floor' and ‘All You Children’ tell you to shut up and dance. On 'All You Children' a robotic voice says: “Stop your crying, dance with me / Feel the rhythm of my arms / Don’t “let’s cry now,” dance with me / Stop you tearing up / Don’t you hear the music? / Don’t you feel the happy beat?” This brings to mind a culty horror movie in which everyone incessantly smiles. There’s a strange contrast here between these tracks and the aforementioned ‘Breather’ and ‘Falling Together’. Should we shut up and dance or should we stop and feel something?
It’s not all bad though. Most transitions beside the one between the opener and the second song are expertly done and as a result the album has a great flow. ‘Dafodil' has an interesting vibe. ‘Still Summer’ and 'Breather' are two of those ‘entire musical journey in one song’ types of tracks. If you can stop yourself from listening too closely to the lyrics, 'Breather' is also genuinely a great track. Both it and ‘Treat Each Other Right’ also feature change-ups that are really well executed. And although the horn samples on ‘Baddy On The Floor’ and ‘Life’ feel overdone, they’re still quite catchy dance songs. If you don’t listen too closely, this album is still rather enjoyable.
I feel I was right to expect more from Jamie XX though, especially after close to ten years. Jamie doesn’t really take any risks here. It all feels too familiar - too comfortable. It’s not as fun, and a bit boring. As a result ‘In Waves’ feels forgettable.
