Hearing In Colour feels like listening to the dissection of a heartbeat—skittering anxieties mirrored in the snares, the warm glow of love reflected in steel drums, camaraderie sampled via musical voices of the past.

By the time the record came out in 2015, Jamie Smith had already made two LPs with the xx, remixed an album by the legendary musician and poet Gil Scott-Heron (later loaning a sample from the project to Drake for a Top 10 hit), and released a solo track called “All Under One Roof Raving” about the communal ethos of the UK underground. He was a dance music enthusiast who didn’t really enjoy drugs, a loner who frequented London’s famous Plastic People nightclub by himself, a kid who watched UK garage documentaries on tour when he was homesick. In Colour was the result of his self-directed club education, a collection of influences—’90s jungle, swaggy doo-wop, the exaltation of trance, and the tension of two-step—that were reverent of the past but wary of nostalgia. It’s the sound of longing and loneliness mixed with the joyful relief of discovering that you’ve been among friends all along.

Gosh
Sleep Sound
SeeSaw (Feat. Romy)
Obvs
Just Saying
Stranger in a Room (Feat. Oliver Sim)
Hold Tight
Loud Places (Feat. Romy)
I Know There's Gonna Be (Good Times) [feat. Young Thug & Popcaan]
The Rest Is Noise
Girl