The challenge in talking about Jamie XX’s brilliant new album “In Waves” is trying to describe what “kind” of music it is. As the main songwriter and producer in the British trio the XX, he was the driving force behind one of the great hopes of alternative music in the late ‘00s.

Already an acclaimed musician outside of his work with the xx, he’s now ready to release his long-awaited sophomore album In Waves, the follow-up to 2015’s In Colour. After nine years, his debut album feels eternal while capturing the essence of the mid 2010s — a bright,

Jamie xx, Alasdair McLellan. With so much good music being released all the time, it can be hard to determine what to listen to first. Every week, Pitchfork offers a run-