Artist: Jamie xx
Album Title: In Colour
Release Date: 29 May 2015
Genre: Electronic
Tracks Standard: 11
Tracks Deluxe: -
Buy It:
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iTunes
Jamie xx and The xx are musicians that I would never imagine myself listening to but I find them strangely captivating because they are like nothing else I have ever listened to or come across. Their music is often quite chilled out but has very prominent beats throughout the songs giving it a lot of punch and therefore manages to keep me interested. Normally with chilled out music I can get bored easily because there isn't much going on for me to listen to.
I first came across Jamie xx on Radio 1 simply because I couldn't decide what I wanted to listen to and was being lazy about it. Loud Places ft Romy was then played on the radio and I loved it immediately - I featured it in my May 2015 Music Favourites. The album itself starts with the chilled out tracks you would expect from Jamie xx. This provides such an easy listen and be used at any time whether that be revision, trying to sleep or just trying to relax.
I would say my favourite tracks on the album are the ones that feature the vocal of Romy - there is something about her voice that adds so much to the track and really gives out a chilled feeling. These tracks are Loud Places and SeeSaw.
Loud Places I have mentioned before and despite being a single I love it still! (I like to pick songs that aren't released as singles to get a better idea of the album.) I really like that the tracks features everyday sounding samples and in a way makes the track seem more casual like you could hear it while you were walking about with traffic going by - that is what I can imagine from it. As I have mentioned earlier, the tracks have strong beats throughout which add a lot of depth to the sound and therefore keeps me captivated.
On the other hand, the vocal in SeeSaw isn't as prominent as it is in Loud Places. This is because the beats in this track are much louder and therefore take the forefront of it. Obviously the vocal can be heard throughout but it isn't used as much as in Loud Places. For this reason, I also think that SeeSaw is more chilled out then Loud Places because there isn't as much to focus on and the listener isn't distracted by the vocal as much meaning that they won't be singing along.
Something I didn't like about the album is the track I Know There's Gonna Be (Good Times). This is the only track on the album that swears and the only one that is completely different to the others. Under normal circumstances I think I would have liked a shake up but I got so used to the tone of the album that when I heard this track it completely shook me up.
A final thing I want to mention is that although 90% of the tracks are chilled out, they sound nothing like each other - they may have similar tones and layout but sound so different and that is what keeps it interesting.
