The XX

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

Oh man, for a whole 30 seconds I thought it was going to be the Massive Attack song and got really REALLY excited. But alas, no.

sadly it was just the totally awesome womack and womack song

W&W's Teadrops >>>>>>>>>>>>>> Massive Attack's Teadrop (and I do love Massive Attack)

And I think Massive Attack would agree

W&W's Teadrops >>>>>>>>>>>>>> Massive Attack's Teadrop (and I do love Massive Attack)

― Andy K, Thursday, August 27, 2009 6:03 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

Thanks for YT clip Andy!

xx is the first studio album by English indie rock The xx. Produced by the group themselves, it was originally released by Young Turks Records on August 17, 2009 in the United Kingdom and is scheduled to be released on October 20th in North America.

YEAH, it will be out soon here in America. That cover is great.

just read that they scrapped sessions with Diplo (?!). good on them.

cover of 'do you mind' the uk funky classikk - http://www.thefader.com/2009/08/26/the-xx-do-you-mind-kyla-cover-mp3/

these guys are pretty rad

Got this on a chum's recommendation and a couple of cursory listens have revealed the lad's singing voice as a *big* stumbling block for me - his affected drawl is the kind of thing that gets put on by every other male teenage contestant on the X-Factor etc and it pretty much scuppers the whole endeavour. That and the dreadful lyrics.

If you're going to have the vocals so front-and-centre on a record then they'd better be special and in this case it's just not working for me.

rly tho what is it with bands like this covering songs like that instead of actually trying to make music more like that in the first place (not that these are bad examples of that necessarily, unlike say FAT M doing 'You Got The Love')

Maybe they don't want to make music more like that in the first place? Maybe they think they'd be rubbish at it? Maybe there are elements in the song that they wanted to bring out in a different way? There are loads of reasons!

Actually the The XX making funky would almost certainly be terrible - unlike this cover which I think is great.

of course of course, still quite a frustrating trend at times and sometimes hard to see the value in re-context of these songs beyond cred-chasing xp

Maybe they think they'd be rubbish at it?

is this not u+k?

"actually trying to make music more like that in the first place" leads us to Bloc Party's "One More Chance" and that horrible strangulated vocal which dude can get away with in indie but not in piano house.

tho who knows, maybe Temper Trap will cover 'In The Morning' and i'll love it

"actually trying to make music more like that in the first place" leads us to Bloc Party's "One More Chance" and that horrible strangulated vocal which dude can get away with in indie but not in piano house.

Or alternatively, The XX debuting with a mediocre dubstep track that disappears without trace upon release.

and that horrible strangulated vocal which dude can get away with in indie but not in piano house

they could've made it as an instrumental! interesting statement tho re shit horses ok for some courses

Joker remix of XX surely in progress as we type