Jamie xx will release his solo LP In Colour via Young Turks on June 1st, and in anticipation of the upcoming record he has teased this track with video for “Loud Places (ft Romy)“. Last year he gave us cuts like “Girl” and “Sleep Sound“, both off the upcoming album, and while they found him sans fellow xx members Romy Madley-Croft and Oliver Sim, as well as in a nostalgic fever dream for the salad days of the UK rave scene, on “Loud Places” Jamie Smith is once again joined by Madley-Croft. While her vocal delivery is in keeping with her work as The xx, there we would find her in tandem with Oliver Sim, exploring in hushed tones the difficult to articulate realms of the heart. Here, we only get her side of the story, as she asks after her lost lover, “didn’t I take you to higher places/you can’t reach”. The xx’s penchant for quiet, uncluttered, yet emotional arrangements is replaced on “Loud Places” by a deep house vibe that continually uplifts, even as Romy’s heart breaks.
The video for the track was directed by Simon Halsall and JB Babenhausen, and it features Jamie Smith and Romy Madley-Croft skateboarding together. As Smith explains: “We grew up skateboarding together. When I was thinking of what the video for Loud Places should be, I kept coming back to the idea of Romy and I skating in London, visiting the places we used to go to. It’s a part of our friendship not many people really know about and it’s something I wanted to share.”
