The XX

This is growing on me. Seems like having a sample/instrumental post-chorus is a trend in modern pop huh? Right now I can only think of this song and "Lean On" but I feel like I've been hearing it a lot in the past couple of years.

Ah yeah also Sorry by Bieber does it... thar's a big one... also several Chainsmokers songs... too lazy to go thru the charts of the previous years but it does feel like a trend that I very rarely heard before.

that's been a pretty defining trait of edm pop this decade

New song is so naff although I guess the guy's singing has improved.

Suspect the dude's improved singing is actually a turn-off for some listeners: no longer sounds like he's singing in the middle of a large, cold, totally dark room.

Not digging this on first listen - I didn't like In Colour much, and this is definitely further in that direction. I mean, when you're sampling one of the best songs of all-time I expect better than "meh"

Oh wow went to check the sample and hadn't realized it's Hall & Oates. In their defense the sample is modified heavily enough that is not instantly recognizable. I like that there's a part of the song with guitars before the sample enters (while he sings the chorus and shortly after) that kind of sounds like The Field. It's a huge blue balls moment tho... I kind of expect a drop the bass moment after hearing that sound and it goes straight into the post chorus that doesn't sound like a particularly cathartic moment.

I know it's their kind of style but this might be my problem with this song. Too many things in it are right but they never release the tension they build. It goes from one section to the next but it never explodes... which wouldn't be a problem normally but if they're going to go for a more commercial sound they need this sort of moments. Oddly enough in their debut they did knew how to release the tension by repeating a formula of introduce chorus +!drop beat + introduce new guitar figure... sometimes they would stay there until the song was over.

The new song is making me retroactively like "VCR", weirdly.

"VCR" was always my favorite from the first record!

i would love to hear this w/o the sample. it's pretty good as it is but it still feels to me like a slightly awkward meshing of the xx with jamie's solo work. or like they're trying to be cut copy. there's some version of the song that walks right to the edge of the release the sample provides but doesn't give into it, and that's the one i'd be most interested in hearing.

The first album is lovely imho. It takes the economical approach of a band like Young Marble Giants and updates it with the missing decades of pop music. It is of course not as mindblowing as YMG because it doesn't feel as new or transgressive as Colosal Youth in context but you can do a hell lot worse than YMG as one of your main influences.

Cant find the interview but I remember them citing YMG, The Cure and Aaliyah amongst others as main influences which is perfect by me. Or maybe I'm just misremembering and it was actually a critic doing the comparison.

Back to this new song: it's an evolution of that sound which is fine by me because repeating the formula from the first record would get old quick and they got it right the first time around. The problem with being a 'sparse' band is that moving into something more ambitious feels like a different band. This per example doesn't sound like the XX, this sounds like a Jamie XX remix. I think the song is ok but hope the whole album goes somewhere else.

Or at the very least I hope it becomes a good Jamie xx record instead of the hit and miss of In Colour.

i think this track is fantastic and marries the best of jamie xx's past 3 years of work with some great vocals from romy and that dude. whats not to like. bands evolve - i don't have any expectations they will or should have a similar dynamic to their first record.

I love this band, even the second album, but saw their SNL performance, and at this point they really should have learned how to step side to side to the beat.

The sample sounds tacked-on and very much not "them", but there are some really nice smart touches in the songwriting. The 'better voices' are jarring at first blush and he sounds much more 'anonymous male pop radio voice' now, but the moments when their accents shine through (Jamie: 'too soon to caull us') are beautiful. They completely lost me on the last album (that one fantastic track aside), but I'm curious to hear the rest of this one, if only to hear how they incorporate other aspects of the EDM palette into their sound.

her voice is so beautiful

feel resistant to any sober analysis of this, spent all the time since this song existed walking around ny waiting for guy to sing you got the! you got the! in my ears

i first heard this last night and didn't even realize it was them. i asked my friend what it was b/c i felt that "i was meant to hear this song". it feels bizarrely right for them.

Their SNL performances were very touching

yeah i thought it was the best SNL thing I'd seen in ages, they were so obviously thrilled to be there and they seem like they like each other, very real smiles after each song

their little dance moves made me lol too in a cute way

New song on spotify/itunes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wl9tcrIeJ48

kinda clunky

I thought it was terrible the first time but I kept listening and now I like it better than On Hold

Wow, that's absolutely terrible.

Critic Jon Pareles in the NY Times interviews them in Texas, and writes about em re new upcoming album

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/28/arts/music/the-xx-i-see-you-interview.html?_r=0

When the band started, the xx imposed its own strictures. To stay personal, Ms. Madley Croft and Mr. Sim would each sing only lyrics they had written themselves. They also avoided, as they still do, specifics like place names or gendered pronouns — using you and I, not he and she — “so you can fit it into your own life and imagine yourself within it,” Ms. Madley Croft said. And even on a recording, an xx song could only have the parts that could be played onstage. “We never set out to be a minimal band,” she said. “We just couldn’t play our instruments very well.”

But with “I See You,” the xx upended its old methods. They recorded outside the familiarity of London (though they eventually returned there) in Marfa, Los Angeles and Reykjavik, Iceland — places with sunshine and wide-open landscapes. And they fanned out for projects on their own

I don't know... both songs sound like an update on sappy 80's ballads but they've grown on me. I hated both on first listen.

Listening to both singles, it's very apparent that Jamie xx’s production style from In Colour has taken over the band. They used to have a more 'rock' band dynamic and this album seems like it revolves around loops and samples.

I'll reserve my judgement until the full album comes out but least it sounds like an evolution of their sound. Coexist was imho a diminishing return of their debut and I thought it was a sign that they depleted all the ideas in their sound to go on as a band. It might be a weird shift in tones at first but I like that they're trying something new with it.

My favourite recent ish XX thing is the song Romy did with Jessie Ware.

^^^ so underrated

This is better than "On Hold" but is still annoying.

so far not a fan of the new songs, i'm sure this will change.

Not into it either at first, but sample-based dance pop + the dry, intimate duet thing seems like a good idea for them. at least on paper.

maybe they're at bit like Low in that they have that dynamic at the center, and the challenge is to frame it differently with production/instrumentation.

Low is a very good comparison.

Well damn, I was going to hold off listening to this until the record dropped, but I had a weak moment.

I like this direction they're going! I kinda feel their debut was so concise, tonal and perfect that this evolution is utterly necessary for them.

album is out there

a few of these songs are straight-up not good and a few of them are some of the best stuff they've ever done

so far this is not good, ban soft rock and college dorm makeout music forever

oooh soft rock!

hahaha

some of this seems like it'll be pretty forgettable but i really like replica & i dare you

Sounds like an Xx album then.

i am unexpectedly head over heels for this album what the fuck

like, i've just played it 3 times back to back, the whole thing, and my stony heart is so melted

I have not heard this album but I am emotionally ready to share a crush with Lex. This better not let me down.

it's really soppy and obvious and sounds a bit, in places, like they might want to be years & years

I wound up loving "On Hold" when these people had merely grabbed my mild interest. Would I like it?

it's really soppy and obvious and sounds a bit, in places, like they might want to be years & years

― lex pretend, Thursday, January 12, 2017 7:04 AM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

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