The XX

i was serious when i said shiny toy guns btw. probably rong but serious, haven't heard stg in at least a year

really liking "crystalised" so far and the album reminds me a bit of the awesome D Lissvik album from last year. I still play that one all the time.

u forgot Tim F's Insides meets Colder comparison. which is true tbh now that ive listened to this more. esp. 'heart skipped a beat'. im loving this now. def. up in my top 5 of the year.

Ha if the Insides album came out now people would probably believe it was dubstep influenced. Given dubstep in the broad sense means atmospherics + bass + torpid tempos any such "influence" can be real and still meaningless. Any well-produced UK post-post-punk can make the same claim.

The R&B references strike me as kinda misleading unless you're the kind of person who thinks Aaliyah's blankness is good because it makes her sound like an indie singer. To flip it the other way round and put it more sympathetically, I get the sense that what The XX like about R&B is stuff they also like in music closer to their own style, and then try to emphasise it - reserve, brittle perfection, emphasis on phrasing etc. So the real meaning of "woah these guys like dubstep and R&B" may be "therefore they probably also like and make the kind of indie that we who like R&B and dubstep can get with."

All that said I think The XX would do a totally life-changing cover version of Missy's "Hot Boys".

In fact it shocks me that no-one has tried that trick yet.

(if any indie group wants to hire me as a svengali this is my real email address)

All that said I think The XX would do a totally life-changing cover version of Missy's "Hot Boys".

ha, oh shit, yes.

unless you're the kind of person who thinks Aaliyah's blankness is good because it makes her sound like an indie singer.

Excuse me while I take a hammer to my cranium.

the bit on islands where he goes "that bridge is on fi-er" is so great, each line of that voice has this little gap that makes the following symbol sound like the extension of a yawn.

*verse, not voice

All that said I think The XX would do a totally life-changing cover version of Missy's "Hot Boys".

In fact it shocks me that no-one has tried that trick yet.

Actually Casiotone for the Painfully Alone and Dear Nora did that a couple of years back...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAaFrln3wGU

...WHY DID I STOP LISTENING TO CASIOTONE TWO ALBUMS AGO >:(

That's fucking awesome.

See, you miss out on these things if you're not careful. :-D

This album is great, it sounds like the followup to Stars' "Nightsongs" which Stars are clearly never going to make, having been corrupted by Broken Social Scene. Except Nightsongs is all Smithy while this album is all Curey.

having been corrupted by Broken Social Scene

that's crazy talk, and if Teh XX ever write a song fit to touch the hem of Stars' garments I will take back what I said miles upthread. But it'll never happen.

Broken Social Scene has poisoned a lot of good individual artists, FACT.

Still think this album is mostly a dud, though. Except for "Crystalised," which I'll rep for until the end of time.

What I mean is that BSS may have poisoned others, but their necrotic grip has never had done anything bad to Stars who are the shining jewel of the whole A&C stable by a country mile.

I'm still not convinced by these guys, but I'm hoping one day it'll click and they'll become my favourite band ever.

I'm just saying Stars have yet to revisit the icy coolness of Nightsongs, which the XX have so effortlessly tapped into on their debut album. And I can't help thinking it has to do with exposure to beards.

They're on Jools Holland tonight for anyone with BBC.

Thanks!

"their TV debut"

She looks like Fat Bob, no?

I really like that "You've Got The Love" cover/remix they've done for Fat Machine.

It helps that she doesn't really appear on it.

Way late to the party, but this just came out in the States. Really, really fucking good.

This was out in Boston at the beginning of September!

Hmmmm, I don't know. It still is a $30 import on Amazon and most of the stores I asked at told me an October 20th date, but it happened to pop up in Best Buy of all places last week.

Nevermind, scratch that part about Amazon, I can't read this morning.

Anyway, I'm really really loving this.

you are right, it came out just this week in America or on October 6.

I certainly didn't pay import price for it! huh

i like the mention of similarity to stars "nightsongs"--hadn't thought of that.

I tried listening to this over the weekend, but failed to make it more than three songs deep. It is not understated and spacious. It is empty and more empty. Why do people want to be so rong about thigns?

I don't know, why don't you tell us? Kidding aside, I still think this is a beautiful album, I'm not sure why it is so confounding that people might love this.

Wasn't being all that serious. I'm used to people digging stuff I don't get. Would have to give a closer listen to provide a useful critique, and I'm not drawn to do that anytime soon. And who knows?, maybe I'll like it next time around.

They make emptiness a virtue.

^^^ This really is key. And I know this was discussed upthread, but I think the Young Marble Giants comparison is very apt. Not that the bands sound similar, but they both make fantastic use of the open space in their songs.

they're prob a v good example of what rtc hinted at in the dizzee thread - an act you have to go 75% of the way to meet, and you have to already value very specific traits. like emptiness and stillness. i like this: they weed out the people who demand to be whacked over the head w/hooks from the first listen.

I don't demand to be whacked over the head with hooks. I just demand to be whacked over the head by something other than a denatured, style-conscious aping of far more interesting things (my first impression, admittedly incomplete). Say this as a YMG & Burial fan.

you have to already value very specific traits. like emptiness and stillness

Yes, and yes indeed.

oh yeah style-consciousness is another of those traits u have to be down w/ to appreciate the xx

But now I'm curious. Will try again...

IMO don't try to listen to the whole album at once; focus on "Crystalised" and "Basic Space" first, then play the whole album.

Also I completely disagree that they are about de-emphasizing hooks; their arrangements are sparse but there are hooks aplenty in their songs.

i got irritated by so much dee-dee-dee-dee barney-style guitar playing but there are some real wow! moments on here... as per possible intent i've forgotten what they were or what songs they were in

On Crystalised. This is GREAT. Like moody soul/disco with 90% of itself erased. Getting chills at the chorus. Either I was not in the mood for good things when I heard this, or I bailed after the first two. Which still suck, IMO. Big part of my initial reservation was that I just did't like her reserved & breathy vocal approach, and that's still true. She's okay in small doses, but gets boring when she has to carry the whole sound. He's fantastic though, slippery & rich, pulled way back to suit the mood.

Could definitely see this album being a grower, but I'm not sure I'll ever really enjoy her singing. She deflects my attention and highlights a dispiriting sort of stylization -- the "emptiness" I was complaining about earlier. Otherwise, it's better and more independently interesting than I initially gave it credit for. Cryztalized does seem to stand head and shoulders above the rest, though.

lol most ppl like her and hate him

Though I'm more favorably inclined towards The XX on a relisten, the YMG comparisons, though valid, seem a bit too generous, IMO. This isn't anywhere near as distinctive, risky, personal or strange as Colossal Youth. I'd be more inclined to describe it in terms of Hot Chip and Chris Isaak.

also I sort of felt that way about "Crystalised", then I got into the first track and "Basic Space", and then before I knew it I was digging the whole album

lol most ppl like her and hate him

― HI DERE

rly? Her approach is so familiar and one-trick ordinary. Plus she just doesn't convince me. I don't get any sense of her connection to the music, the rhythm. It's not a good kind of aloofness, either: she just sounds generic. Do have the feeling that I'll grow to like her and this record more in time.

I think it's more of an "she sings in tune and he doesn't" issue

btw i have no style-consciousness, generally don't care about minimalism, love hooks, and i think this is a great album. i like the dude's singing but i also have a thing for "bad" singers so

I like him too but I do think she's a better singer.