Band: The XX
Album: XX
Release Date: August 17th 2009
Band Members: Romy Madley Croft, Oliver Sim, Jamie Smith, Baria Qureshi
This week the team sat down and listened to the debut album from The XX.
Not even snow could cancel this kick off.
Enjoy xx
Much has been made of the XX, a trio of strange young upstarts, bursting onto the music scene to much fanfare and cheering. They've had their accolades, most notably from NME and even swooping in to pick up a Mercury Prize. Their debut album is definitely something not to be missed, not necessarily boisterous or the holy grail of alternative, but ethereal, chilling and creative.
Infuriatingly, the melodies are fiendishly simple yet effective, a fairly quiet, timid guitar does the hard work, while the two voices of Romy Croft and Oliver Sim sing quite sterile vocals. Yet this platypus of an album works incredibly well, every song lasts as long as it should and it extrudes charm like it were second nature.
When cycling through the songs its easy to be drawn by the singles, Islands, Crystallised and Basic, which to their credit are good songs, but venturing from the trodden path you can find an menagerie of easy listening, Infinity and Heart Skipped a Beat to name a few. Even its introductory song is note perfect, and is perhaps one of the best beginnings I've heard in an album for a very long time. All in all, this is a solid piece, from a group of talented young musicians, though I'm very curious to see what they do next.
Favourtie song: Infinity
Recommends: Radiohead, The Cure, Delerium, Postal Service
If this album were a vegetable it would be: it grows alot in the woods, symbolising, its popularity with alternative music listeners and its tasty, but hardly makes the zest in any dinner.
My opinion of this album is quite mixed really, I think it relies on its listener to be in a certain mood and combines dark, depressive melodies with easy listening and relaxation.
I really like the intro and am disappointed that this is probably the most powerful track on the album; normally an intro provides a set up to the rest of the album. While I appreciate that these guys have tried to do something new with the stripped down sound, I feel that the Intro, Crystalised, Islands, Heart Skipped a Beat and Basic space are the only songs worth listening to, the rest are either too dull or too similar.
While I like the vocals and the use of this chilled out, yet moody sound, I feel that there is a lot of similarity on the songs and the guitar is probably just one recording that’s chopped up and used differently on each track. There’s not a lot of energy on the album either and I feel myself about to drift off while I’m listening to it, and while the singing is soothing it doesn’t have that sing along quality, as even at the loudest volume the albums a bit too quiet. Maybe this just isn’t for me but I think if you like the use of stripped down electronica with singing over the top listen to Gorillaz, at least every track is different!
On a side note check out the mash-up of the album intro with “X Gon’ Give it To Ya” by DMX, works really well! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zScY9Ys3S-Q
Favourite Song: Islands
If this album were a vegetable it would be: A cabbage. Not my favourite but cooked a certain way can be a little better.
Recommends: Gorillaz, DJ Shadow, Unkle
Liam
I dislike the Mercury Prize. I’m not a fan of any music awards really but the Mercury Prize particularly annoys me. Mostly because I believe it’s just an excuse for 30 something Guardian readers to snap their fingers and make themselves feel like they’re down with the kids.
That said I shouldn’t discredit The XX just because they were given an award a year after release. Surely they hit the public eye on they own merit.
The album starts with an intro. I don’t mind albums giving you a little something something to get you into the mood. This doesn’t disappoint. It’s groovy, it’s brooding, it’s melodic and it promises the next
ten songs take you on a journey. Until it fades and the album proper kicks in, that is.
The production on this album is impeccable. All the instruments blend seamlessly into one another. The bass drives songs on with perfect timing with the keyboards and guitars complementing each other superbly. The percussion is slow, meaningful and used sparingly to great effect. Seeing as this album is self produced it is the band’s talent that has made everything sounds so perfect.
The vocals, however, often seem lost behind music. The lyrics are instantly forgettable or in my case usually unheard over the pretty din. To me it becomes apparent rather quickly that Romy’s vocals are preferred to Oliver’s who seems to deliberately sing in such a disjointed manner to clash or blend with his bass lines in a tedious way. Most notably on the song ‘Infinity’.
The album plods along at a ramble and sometimes even breaks into a canter. The more energetic songs such as ‘Islands’ (which might be considered a relative jog) do tend to run out of puff half way through but make me thing this band could be onto something good if they tried. I can’t imagine when I would find a decent moment to sit down and actually enjoy it. Not in the car, not while dancing and I’d definitely feel daft listening to it in female company. The album comes and goes quietly. Almost like a comet. It’s pretty to listen to but I won’t miss the XX while we wait for the second album. Hopefully by then they would have learned a new formula for a song.
Favourite Song: Basic Space
If this album were a vegetable it would be: A butternut squash. I'm not sure what to make of it.
Recommends: The Postal Service, Placebo
Nick
I wish I could like this album more than I do. I put off writing this review because I was convinced that all I would need is one more listen before it ‘clicked’, before everything made sense and I would rightly acclaim it as the masterpiece that nearly everybody else declares it to be. However, the deadline has come and gone and that moment never came.
There are moments of pure joy, the plaintive chorus melody of Islands, and for that matter female lead Romy Madley Croft’s vocals in general which rise and fall throughout the xx’s sparse soundscapes in a state of blissed out yet fragile euphoria. The music is elegantly and competently executed throughout and in tracks like Heart Skipped a Beat, Night Time and the last minute of Infinity, we are guided through peaks and troughs of synthesised melody with heart stopping grace and precision.
However, ultimately this album feels empty, a textbook execution of indie synth pop, stylish and spacious but with nothing behind it. While its cold, detached sound lends itself well to the snow covered urban landscapes I’ve been surrounded by when listening to it, at best this is a mild aesthetic pleasure rather than a feeling of genuine excitement or emotional resonance. The desire to experiment with space and sonic fluctuations descends into navel gazing on songs such as Fantasy, a track which seems to last much longer than its actual two minutes and 38 seconds.
The lyrics, made up primarily of lovers’ dialogue between Madley Croft and, male lead, Oliver Sim, are engaging enough but Sim’s flat, stoned sounding delivery soon begins to grate and just becomes another background sound in an album which is primarily made up of background sounds.
If I’m being honest, this is probably a good album. It’s well written and executed, and extremely tasteful. However, ultimately there is neither a depth of feeling nor a calculated attempt to remove feeling completely (which would have been interesting in itself) just a sense, at the end, of “is this it?”
Favourite Song: Islands
Sounds Like: A chilled out Camera Obscura. Chilled out to the point of parked
If this album was a vegetable it would be: A cucumber, tasty enough but too insubstantial to be truly satisfying.
Rob
This record is a breath of fresh air in a fog of over-orchestration. It's old-hat musical ideas are stripped back to their bare bones and executed in a way that forces you to notice them. Syncopation of the bass and lead guitars in Crystalised gives the song a distinct edge above the rest.
The vocals similarly boast a range of simplistic but effective techniques such as canons and imitation which when combined with a wispy timbre produce a tranquil and hypnotic ecstasy. I love being able to hear the crispy twang of the guitar completely transparently through a number of tracks. Night Time and Heart Skipped a Beat are uncluttered and clear in their musical intent. No part of the arrangement is redundant!
However, this album is chronologically (and unfortunately) split in two by Fantasy; undoubtedly the weakest song on the album. If it's meant as an interlude, then it's self-indulgent and otherwise it's simply out of place. With all other songs at a similar tempo, this track ruins what could otherwise be called a concept album. Even if singing about love for eleven tracks is cliché.
What this album lacks is excitement and I mean that both musically and inherently – it's relaxed style fails to stimulate in way that makes it memorable and thereby many of the tracks blend into one. Although I appreciate xx, it's apparent laziness and lack of variation is holding it back from being a truly great album.
Favourite song: Crystalised
If you like this, you might like: Two Door Cinema Club, Florence and the Machine
If this album was a vegetable it would be: a parsnip because of it's sweet but subtle taste. Although no one thinks of it as a favourite.
Next week: A Thousand Suns - Linkin Park as chosen by Jamie.
x
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