The XX

I only listened to the track on the Youtube video embedded above, having been enticed by the interesting set of quoted influences, but found it very tedious. I just don't want to hear songs with that kind of numbingly boring, uninspiring chord sequence or that tired-sounding vocal style. I never liked that style in the first place but it seems even worse now, being rehashed for the umpteenth time.

Relistening, "Basic Space" isn't terrible but still isn't my thing. Certainly doesn't "suck" though, and I give them mad props for doing something that really isn't being done atm. The sound quite mature for whatever age they look in these videos/pix.

I am loving this. So nice and sparse, almost Young Marble Giants-ish in places.

Xpost

Saw them on Friday at a free show in NYC, purely by accident. Liked them more than School of Seven Bells, also on the bill, FWIW.

British, sparing, sometimes melancholic. I might have too much of this stuff already. But maybe not.

almost Young Marble Giants-ish in places.

Argh, stop saying this. This is nothing like YMG.

Some of it kinda is.

But not enough. Another friend says this sounds like the Vaselines, which is also not quite accurate.

Someone tell me why I keep coming back to this thread even though I only like two songs on the record! Maybe I feel like a mother hen or something because I've been gushing over "Crystalised" since months ago and, even though the album was disappointing, I still feel loyal.

the biggest problem with this album is that all the songs sounds the same, and as mentioned,going nowhere.

somehow most of the new hyped british bands in recent years are dissapointing.

TS: X vs The X vs The XX ....

vs The Ex

It's not a perfect album by any stretch but in some respects there's nothing wrong with a band doing an album that all sounds the same. Loads of good albums sound pretty similar all the way through on the first few listens.

If anything I wish they hadn't included the slightly different sounding track. Not because I don't like it but because it's too much like 'Wicked Game' by Chris Isaak.

because it's too much like 'Wicked Game' by Chris Isaak

Ha! I definitely heard that in there too.

Also, the first track, to me, sounds like a Foals 45 played at 33.

Four songs in and really enjoying it.

Gosh, this is lovely stuff. Instantly appealing.

I can see the YMG comparison a little, actually.

It also sounds a bit like Whitest Boy Alive, in terms of the guitar sound and the space in the production.

now i'm kind of interested in this band. have a feeling i will like it. these kids look so damn young...

They're 19. That means they were born in 1990. THE 90S!!!

that is insane

i feel old

don't mind that first single. reminds me of a bunch of things i used to listen to early this decade. sounds like something twisted nerve would have put out.

Hmm, there is a bit of a drop-off towards the end. It doesn't quite recover from its excursion into Isaak-land.

yeah, the last three tracks are nice but don't really add anything. tracks 1-8 are basically a killer EP.

??? 'infinity' is like the best song on the album

fucking hell they were amazing live. this is an incredible band.

REALLY amazing.

Really like this, but then my mind wanders every time I try to listen to it, and I forget it's even on.

They're something else live. The PA in the ICA was struggling to cope with their sub bass when I heard them. They certainly shredded a couple of cones. It made a mockery of The Big Pink's supposedly overwhelming wall of noise (they were support act), which was just like a haggard, east London MGMT, compared to the XX, who were just brittle but pristine and heavy as fuck.

I guess it's not the sort of album you can listen to on small speakers either.

Wow... I'm really getting into this album! The songs individually are very good, but go together even better. Uniformly coy and sensual album.

Roray won't tell us.

So please, ILX, which song on the album "sounds like Smalltown Boy" ?!?!?

I listened to this again yesterday and I still don't quite get what people are hearing there. The aesthetic is a good one - stripped down guitars + very slightly off-kilter clicky beats + sub-low bass + boy/girl vocals but the individual elements don't seem to be doing anything interesting.

I do really like 'Islands' and 'Night Time' though - they're the ones that clicked for me but I think the songwriting is kinda weak elsewhere.

@Kate, don't know about Smalltown Boy, but 'Infinity' always makes me think of Chris Isaak's 'Wicked Game' and Orinoco Flow

I don't think that sounds a thing like Bronski Beat so I don't think it's what Roray was talking about, but I do like that track LOADS. I think I might be being convinced on this band.

I know, I'm falling for it rapidly

I've listened to Infinity twice now, and those woozy boy-girl vocals are just really doing it for me. I don't mind his voice so much when they sing together.

It's not the second coming or anything, but it's a lovely, atmospheric haze of beauty.

<3 this album it's amazing!

I don't get this yet.

Finally listened to the album all the way through - hard work tbh, as it is pretty boring.
First off the guy's voice is the WORST, and even the girl with the huge underbite, who has a pleasnat voice, lost my interest eventually. The music, which still sounds nothing like Young Marble Giants, is too colourless and unengaging on too many tracks.
I did like "Crystalised", "Night Time" and "Basic Space", but not enough to make me want to go back to this band again. Heigh ho.

i quite like this and can see why some would love it. probably helps that i'm listening on my senns so hearing the good bass (and aforementioned space) well.

Was fucking certain I'd revived this this morning, or yesterday, to say that it sounded better on big ass speakers than modest headphones.

that seems like a given to me!

True, true, it didn't need saying. I just thought I had said it.

Finally tracked down this album today and have given it a spin or two. The aesthetic is fairly uniform, but for all that, it’s an interesting one. I didn't quite understand the ostensible Aaliyah influence until I tried to explain what I liked about the album, and came up with this: "The push towards total minimalism musically does the same thing for me as Aaliyah and Cassie’s vocal minimalism. The further and further it approaches total stillness, the more and more entranced I am, pulled into this black hole of charisma and repetition. Trance-inducing almost." So, I guess there's some truth in that claim, at least to my ears.

I'm not sure how it'll hold up to repeated listens, but there's certainly something interesting going on here.

i sort of like what this band is going for, but i'm not feeling the execution.

i really like this when it's playing but i seem to forget it after it's over.

going to keep trying.

Tom E just pointed out to me that they've covered Womack & Womack.

Aspects of some of the stuff I've heard reminds me of early Shriekback -- All the Greek Boys, Brink of Collapse, etc.

I keep being reminded of the first Cure album....

that Teardrops cover is great

Whoa they covered Teardrops? *scours the interwebs*

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrVgCCUQ3fQ

Oliver put out a solo album mentioned above that was not dj'ing

Romy just sang live with Fred Again, and while Jamie XX is dj'ing -- he creating a recent Notting Hill Carnival track himself

romy is working on a very slowly gestating solo album, jamie has been putting out the occasional solo track too

figure they'll make another album in a few years once romy's released hers, they still seem to be all on good terms

romy is onto something good

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6gGG7u0dbE

The Romy album is out today and it's fantastic

it's quite good, makes me hope the eventual next xx album goes full deep house

Shazam’d a song and was pleased it was from this album.

this is pretty solid

This is truly the year of retro '90s house

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/06/arts/music/romy-madley-croft-mid-air.html

Growing up, she explained, the first music that spoke to her identity as a gay woman was mostly what she jokingly referred to as “lesbian acoustic music.” “I’ve always fought against that,” she said. “The reason there’s electronic music in the early demos of the xx is me, wanting to make something else.” She readily credits a new generation of rock and indie acts with broadening the scope of queer guitar music, but “indie, and rock, that’s not really my thing now.” She came to a firm decision: “I want to make dance pop.”...She mentioned Everything but the Girl — which Madley Croft’s parents raised her on — or even Cher’s “Believe,” which she cited as her favorite song. But rooting the anthemic big beats is inspiration taken from more sober moments in her life: processing the grief of both of her parents’ deaths before she was 21; her ongoing struggles to conquer self-doubt and adapt to a new romance.

“She makes very catchy melodies. That’s the thing that always gets me,” Jamie xx said in a phone interview. He noted that the album was filled with earnest tracks that “could become really big pop songs — and could be super cheesy — but there’s always a level of restraint and classiness that she brings to it.”...In early 2018, she was paired for a songwriting session with a young up-and-coming producer named Fred Gibson, a.k.a. the now white-hot musician Fred again.. The chemistry was immediate. “He has a very magical charm — which is amazing, as a songwriter and a producer — to make someone feel at ease,” she said.

She mentioned Everything but the Girl — which Madley Croft’s parents raised her on

I always thought she had a very similar singing style to Tracey Thorne.

I desperately want extended versions of Loveher and She's On My Mind. just gorgeous songs.

https://consequence.net/2024/01/the-xx-new-album-confirmed/?

They should add more members to the band so that they can also do solo albums first.