Jamie xx is busy supporting his excellent new solo debut In Colour, and he rounded up a few friends for a Late Night with Seth Meyers performance that brought the stunning “Loud Places” to life. Assisted by The xx bandmates Oliver Sim and Romy, Savages’ Jehnny Beth, Chairlift’s Caroline Polachek, Warpaint’s Stella Mozgawa, Moses Sumney, Okay Kaya, and the Harlem Gospel Choir, the British producer teased out all of the vulnerability and bittersweet memory that makes the song one of the album’s highlights.
Jamie xx and friends bring single ‘Loud Places’ to life on Late Night with Seth Meyers
It’s a warm, precise, and vulnerable performance
It’s a warm, precise, and vulnerable performance
I’m fond of the performance’s communal, therapeutic spirit. There’s something touching about taking a song that’s fundamentally about loneliness and bringing it to life with a dozen close friends and collaborators. The big band’s recreation of the song’s core sample, Idris Muhammad’s 1977 disco odyssey “Could Heaven Ever Be Like This” is warm and precise. With the choir at his back, you’d be hard-pressed to tell that Jamie’s reaching almost four decades into the past.
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