Being a member of one of the defining indie rock bands during the 2010s is a well-deserved confidence booster.A year after the xx released 2017’s I See You, their third album, bandmate and childhood friend Oliver Sim remembered a chat he had with producer Jamie xx about the future when they were teenagers.
“I think I’m at peace with the fact that I’m not going to make big waves in the world,” Sim recalled Smith saying.It’s a statement that buzzes with teenage insecurity or foreshadows a cool humility.
Whatever the tone, its sentiment was undoubtedly wrong.In retrospect, that moment reads as the opposite of a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Already an acclaimed musician outside of his work with the xx, he’s now ready to release his long-awaited sophomore album In Waves, the follow-up to 2015’s In Colour.After nine years, his debut album feels eternal while capturing the essence of the mid 2010s — a bright, promising period right before everything unraveled.
In Waves feels like a subconscious wink to that adolescent proclamation, with tracks that evoke gossiping with friends in the club bathroom to late night existential chats, offering a space where the ego can be indulged and then liberated.In Waves operates, in several aspects, as an antithesis to its predecessor.
There are loads more flock-to-the-floor bangers, harbingers of sweat and euphoria.There are significantly more collaborations, including contributions from his bandmates, Robyn, and the Avalanches.
Even the album cover is purposefully drained of the Technicolor prominent in past artwork.Still, Smith’s confidence, along with his craft, is continuously being pushed and refined.
While chatting over the phone, he elaborates more on this project’s shift.“I care less about what people think,” he says.
“In Colour being my first album, even though it was made very insularly, I was aware that it was going to be out there in the world.It was an exciting prospect for me to be ...