Last summer brought "All Under One Roof Raving," a strange and hypnotic single from Jamie Smith, part of the brilliant techno-pop trio, the XX. Smith is transfixed by the Manchester rave scene of the '80's, in his mind a Xanadu moment that looms like the "Summer of Love" for those of us of a certain age. He's not wrong, but that moment is just as gone as the Airplane at Winterland.
Still, even a generation older than Smith, it's hard not to have a sense of yearning when you hear this track:
So now we have an album of Smith's reprocessing of this sound of staying up all night. When I listen to many of the tracks here -- and "Gosh" is a perfect example -- I keep wondering what I would have made of this music had it been beamed to my radio forty years ago in 1976.
I hear how he stylizes gospel and hip-hop brilliantly a la Moby in "There's Gonna Be Good Times":
But it's this track, "Loud Places," the pop masterpiece here, that makes it all click for me.
My staying up all night nights are rationed now, tempered by the knowledge that transcendence is not more available at 4AM. But In Colour can give you a tiny taste of the abandon in the wee small hours anytime you want.
With the year half gone, this is one of the best we'll see in 2105.
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