the xx : xx
Finally! I awake from my hibernation. My lurking. I thought it would never end. Nothing would stir my apathetic summer lull. Everything was meh. I was losing faith. That all changed today. Today I heard The XX.
This first album from The XX, a quartet of nineteen year olds from southwest London, is the best album I have heard this summer by far. With minimalism, not for minimalism’s sake; rather the precise exercise of simplicity and restraint hyper-intensifies the articulately hand-crafted electro/pop hooks. At the same time, droning, noodling, complementing guitars drive throughout; the kind you may remember from Interpol, but without the lo-fi annoyances. Every note, lyric, and bass blip filling the soundscape is crisp and hauntingly sublime.
As new tools have ushered in a swath of opportunities for copypasta artists, it is surprisingly refreshing to finally hear something this original and creative. John Doran writes for TheQuietus.com “[The XX] have achieved that most noble of things for a band. They sound like themselves and prove that even though all the sounds have been synthesized and manufactured, creatively the game is still wide open for the taking.” (great article btw). If you listen to one new album this summer make it The XX’s psudo-self-titled album XX.
thexx.info – myspace – hypem – amazon
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