The XX

god this is so good

really like this album. at first i thought it sagged a little after "performance" (an instant classic, gorgeously affecting vocal) up until "on hold", but a few listens in and pretty much all the tracks have revealed much to appreciate now. not sure it's sequenced as well as it could have been but that's really my only gripe.

cool album
keep getting benoit + sergio tracks in my head for one reason or another

Yeah, this album is so good. I really did not see it coming after how bland Coexist and Jameie's solo albums were.

quite an improvement. the tracks have more energy and they learned how to sing.

Not sure about the sequencing - I like the last half of the album better. Really love the keyboards on "Replica" chorus which remind me of 'American Dream' by CSNY.

I still need to listen to this more (it's basically been on replay since Sunday...) but so far it's so good !
Agreed that "Performance" is an instant classic. It had that great and rare thing : when I first heard it, it already seemed familiar, as if it was an old forgotten favourite...
"Say Something Loving" is fantastic. greatest pop song in a while.
I already liked "On Hold" when it was released and it's still fun and catchy.
Actually, at this point I don't think there's a dud.
I almost think the album is too short, which is rare for me !

Highlights for me: On Hold, Replica, Dangerous, Lips.

I liked Say Something Loving the first times but the more I listen to it the less I like it. It's sort of awkward.

Performance bores me not sure what you guys are hearing in it. The violin work is nice but it's not enough for me... I'd be great if it were only 1 minute long.

It's good that people are hearing different highlights though... reminds me to the debut in that aspect. Coexist had very obvious highlights.

yeah I've cooled on "Performrance." Too on-the-nose.

"Performance" is a mood-killer on this album, feels out of place, like it's roped in from Co-exist

Although I really like this I have to say I find "Brave For You" just too precious, it's like yeah I get it, but frankly being brave is getting on with it and not singing about it in a heartbroken whisper.

i think "performance" is kinda really bad, the vocal phrasing in the chorus is so awkward

ah ! lot's of hating on "performance".
actually, the thing I love about it is the melody not the... performance (or arrangements) !
I can totally understand why one would dislike it, though.

Performance is the only real dud on this. Surprising how this band, who used to excel at slow burners, seems now incapable of writing an interesting ballad. On this, the best bits are generally those where they stray the furthest from the initial formula.

y'all are insane

"performance" is gorgeous imo

Surprising how this band, who used to excel at slow burners, seems now incapable of writing an interesting ballad. On this, the best bits are generally those where they stray the furthest from the initial formula.

but

I mean, I do like this album but large chunks of it are cloying nonsense. Mind you, it's enjoyable cloying nonsense but it's not really what I would point to if I was trying to get someone into the band.

really? Their consistency is such that I have no problem if this neophyte purchased any of'em.

I would go chronologically; the first album is the foundation and the 2nd and 3rd are extremes swinging in either direction from it; I feel like you get more out of the choices made on the later albums if you contrast them with how the first was put together.

latest favourites are : "Lips", "Violent Noise" and "Replica".
I think by the end of the week I'll love the whole album !
So far, there's only "Test Me" that's unclear to me.
And "Dangerous" is OK but doesn't seem to have a big potential to grow on me.

I get the feeling that Romy has been listening a lot to The Studio and to Robert Smith's guitar playing - I hear a lot of familiar six-string bass riffs

You're right, but he's used those tunings since the debut.

this is extremely corny wow

first ilm event album of 2017

i've had the chorus to "say something loving" stuck in my head for a week

feelings abt coexist itt so confused

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=222iz7UY_6E

Sunset (Jamie XX remix) is tops as well

reunion, sunset, missing, & swept away from coexist are all great

brave for you & performance are definitely the weaker tracks on the new one

don't really get the hate for "performance" or "brave for you" - i wouldn't call the latter a heartbroken whisper at all, it's virtually an inspirational x factor powerballad (and all the better for it) albeit xx'ed down obviously. i love how direct the lyrics are on this, they're on the nose but somehow not too much (this band, all about the tightrope walk). sequencing is impeccable imo - makes "on hold" sound like such a release. the final track is a bit of a nothingy wisp i guess

I feel like 'i dare you' is kind of this album's thesis statement

Played some of these (three songs actually: hold on, replica and say something loving) early at a big event of 400 people in one of my bars today. Noone seemed to mind but noone seemed impressed either or came by to ask what I was playing - I played the new Jens Lekman song, as a contrast, and two different guys asked me what it was. When I play something off the debut every now and then (favorite plays are 'intro' 'Islands' or 'Shelter') I still get people asking me about them. My point is that these songs don't seem to bother anyone but they also fail to generare interest in newcomers.

Nothing particularly interesting in my post just wanted to share my social experiments with these songs so far.

The use of David Lang on Lips is so great.

Say Something Loving is so easily the best thing they've ever done it's not even funny. i don't usually like them much but that's amazing.

yeh i've had that song stuck in my head for days

The final track is not particularly memorable or developed but as an atmospheric piece to close the album, it's fine (funny that in the quietus review that generally destroyed the album, that final track is one of the few salvable tracks...).
http://thequietus.com/articles/21551-the-xx-i-see-you-review

so, the only track I don't particularly like now is "Dangerous". I skip it most of the times.
It's ok and not a dud though. a kind of club banger. maybe I'll warm up to it later.
All the rest is good or, mostly, great.

Dangerous felt a little clunky at first but it's grown on me

Loving the closing one-two hit of Dare You / Test Me

Say Something Loving is so easily the best thing they've ever done it's not even funny. i don't usually like them much but that's amazing.

I think the first thing that hit me on the album was the "I don't know, I don't know, I don't know" part. so good.
There are so many little touches and beautiful moments on the record.
And the funny thing is that I don't even like the male singer's voice ! he's pretty poor, borderline incompetent and out of place on an otherwise beautifully crafted record.

Loving the closing one-two hit of Dare You / Test Me

― licorice oratorio (baaderonixx)

I kind of dismissed these guys back in the day, but stumbled upon it this morning and it's damn near prefect for what I was after (the first album). Was Graham Sutton anything to do with it? It might just be the limpid guitar lines, but it's really reminding me of Bark Psychosis.

I quite liked the debut and thought the second album had its moments, but I can't hear anything good in this at all. Imo their voices feel unbelievably grating now and the melodies beyond generic. I really don't get it, which I was not expecting based on all the hype.

this new album sucks

I'm not invested in this album one way or the other ('Performance' and 'Replica' have really nice hooks, but a lot of these sound too much like they were made to be on a Grey's Anatomy episode), but it's an interesting Rorschach test.

I'm at the point where I am actively offended by yet another album of 80s synth pop sounds

Was in a hipsterish bar on Saturday working/writing. They put on the new album, which had given me little pleasure listening to it on my own, but there it worked. Everyone was enjoying it. I saw an odd group of twelve 60+ year olds who'd just come from the theater tapping their feet to it and making things among themselves less awkars. And I enjoyed hearing it in a social setting way more than alone at home, too.

Moka, your crowd is prob too cool for school :)

I'm at the point where I am actively offended by yet another album of 80s synth pop sounds

I'm not hearing much 80s synth pop in here at all? Lot of other bands have exhausted that well but this all sounds pretty new and fresh to me

honestly my first point of comparison was the Thompson Twins

initial reaction, whatever