In Colour – Jamie xx (2015)
An album built for rooms that don't exist yet.
By Rafi Mercer
There are records made for the floor, and records made for the ear, and very rarely, one that manages both without compromising either. In Colour, released in June 2015, is one of those. Jamie xx built it quietly, over years, in between work with The xx — and it arrived sounding like nothing else that summer.
It came at a strange moment for electronic music. The festivals had grown enormous. The DJs had become brands. Everything was getting louder. And then here was Jamie, doing the opposite: pulling back, pulling inward, making something that felt designed for a single room with good speakers and the volume set just right.
The record opens with "Gosh" — a piano loop, a crowd murmur, a sense of somewhere gathering. It doesn't announce itself. It simply begins, the way a good night begins — with the feeling that something is about to happen, without quite knowing what. By the time the bass drops, you've already been pulled somewhere else.
In Colour is, above all, a record about the experience of listening in public. "Loud Places," with Romy, is the most honest song about a club ever written — not about the euphoria, but about the longing underneath it. I go to loud places to find you. The line lands differently every time. It's not a party record. It's a record about what we're really looking for when we go to parties.
Jamie's production here is precise in the way that very few electronic records are. He gives sounds room. A steel-drum sample on "Obvs" lands like sunlight through a window. A vocal snippet from an old gospel record on "I Know There's Gonna Be Good Times" is treated with the same care as a found object on a shelf — placed, not played. Every element has weight.
Through good speakers, the album reveals itself slowly. The low-end on "Stranger in a Room" shifts underfoot. The hi-hats on "Sleep Sound" catch the air. This is not music made to be heard through headphones on a commute. It was made for the kind of listening that requires you to stop, sit, and pay attention.
That's what makes it a T&T record. Not because it belongs in a listening bar specifically, but because it demands what listening bars demand: your presence. It doesn't reward distraction. It rewards stillness.
In Colour didn't follow any genre faithfully. It borrowed from UK garage, grime, house, pop, ambient — and made something that sounded like all of them and none of them. A record built from colours, exactly as the title suggests.
Ten years on, it still sounds ahead of where we are.
FAQs
What kind of album is In Colour by Jamie xx? In Colour is a solo electronic album released in 2015. It draws from UK garage, house, ambient and pop, built around found samples and guest vocals from The xx's Romy and Oliver Sim. It's as much a listening record as a dance record — precise, spacious, and best heard loud in a quiet room.
Why is In Colour considered a great listening album? Because it rewards attention. The production is built on space — sounds are placed, not layered. On a good system, the record reveals details that disappear on casual listening. "Loud Places," "Gosh" and "Stranger in a Room" are all tracks that change completely when you actually sit with them.
What is Tracks & Tales? Tracks & Tales is a global guide to listening bars, vinyl cafés, and the culture of deep listening — covering 4,000+ cities and the records, rooms and rituals that define them. The Listening Club is our founding membership.
Rafi Mercer writes about the spaces where music matters. For more stories from Tracks & Tales, subscribe or click here to read more.
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