In Waves: Listening Notes (Fragments)

Rewritten from a previous piece. Not a review. Just scratches in the margins. Jamie xx In Waves.
Not trying to impress, just what stuck. It's a meditation that starts superficial + cascades to the most profound.

Wanna
Door opens.
Downbeat drops like gravity pulling the floor down.
Momentary life palette cleanser.
Like clearing a canvas with gesso before starting again.

Treat Each Other Right
Feels like somebody yelling across the street.
A social call to action, but not polished. Urgent, sweaty.
I want my work to carry that too — not a sermon, just a raw shove. But with a sly smirk.

Waited All Night (w/ Oliver & Romy)
Nights out. Waiting around.
Missed connections. Someone slips past.
You keep dancing anyway.
Influence = the ache of what didn’t happen.
I guess that's the melancholic element I'm always adding to my work — the empty space that still vibrates.

Baddy on the Floor (w/ Honey Dijon)
Excess. Camp. Ridiculous in the best way.
Influence doesn’t always have to be serious — sometimes it’s drag, exaggeration, or flex.
My art could use more of that — be excessive, even if it edges toward the kitsch I resist.

Daffodil
Underwater intimacy. Past sensual moments replayed.
Halfway into the album, I find myself thinking about my own missed turns, pushing me into memory whether I want it or not.
I think my work captures that: lush + thoughtful at the same time.

Still Summer
Reminds me of dancing with dark undercurrents at the space's edges. Edges are part of the story; they frame the painting.

Life (w/ Robyn)
Absurd joy. Robyn laughing, torsos, nonsense lines.
This sticks because it's serious in its own way.
Maybe that’s my only trait: absurdity inside elegance.

The Feeling I Get From You
Romantic AF.
Block party piano.
Feels real because it’s not the standard; stronger because it carries soul.

Breather
A stopper.
Three movements: rave → grounded → calm.
In tension, life, breathing. I can feel the drift, drive, ache. Alive right now. Breathe. Feel it? It's OK. Breathe.
Existential questions leak in. Remember, one is a flesh-and-bones human animal; alive + going through their life. Stretch, feel, + let go.
If people don't get the work, people don't get the work. Full stop.

All You Children / Every Single Weekend
Chant → collapse.
Ancestral call → quiet release. Bound by our human ancestry.
Can we ever feel bound without falling back into warring tribes? Can I create work that can do that?

Falling Together (w/ Oona Doherty)
Drops me into a dark dance hall where a moving speck represents all of us.
Detached, like a Zen bardo observation.
Clock ticking = mortality.
No forever. But forever.
This track makes me think of my life as the artwork. Has it been any good? Maybe I shouldn’t think of it as one artwork, but a series.
Time’s moving, no pause button.

Afterthought

In Waves doesn’t act like a masterpiece.
It just moves. Messy, absurd, profound.
That’s the influence: it leaves me shifted.
Note to self: Try to capture that in at least one piece.