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Description: |
LP on XL |
| Format: |
LP |
| Genre: |
Indie Pop |
| Label: |
XL |
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Price: |
£12.99 |
| Availability: |
despatched in 1 working day
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Based on 2 review(s).
...according to our Brian on 14 September 2009.
Fucking obsessed with this album. True, bits are a bit samey, what with
the ultra minimal stripped back style they employ, the harmonies are
lush and the dinky guitar lines are so emotive, can't get these simple,
smoky, mellow tunes out of my head. At last, a true marriage of soul
& indie that doesn't make you balk at the idea. The sleeves are a
shit to file away without ripping them though. Stupid design....
...according to our Business Lady on 13 August 2009.
The XX have been plaguing me with their never-ending slew of seven inch singles marked with a massive die-cut X on the front. I'm trying to file the buggers away in our mammoth stock room and I can't tell the diference between each release! Infuriating! Man, if pressing plants were offering the die-cut service back in the mid eighties all the straight edge bands would have had the coolest covers! You'd know an edge single when you saw one! Would have been sweet. The XX ain't no edgers but the folks at XL must be pretty confident about them cause they've cut X's into a lot of card in preperation for the release of 'XX'. The press release hints at post-dubsteppery but thats a load of tosh as far as I can tell, this can only be described as well executed modern minimalist pop music done in style. It reminds me of the laid back Hot Chip (who I believe have done some production work for the group along with Burial and Kieren Hebden) stuff from the last LP. It's super minimal!! Thats all I can say really. If you like ultra clean, super produced minimalist electronic pop driven by ambition then this will suit you just right. Expect to see X's cut out of stuff all over the place this summer.
Based on reviews. (Add yours)
...according to Stuart on 02 April 2010.
this just grabs you immediately from the moment Intro comes in. I put this on and walked away from the hi-fi and had to spin around in amazement as the dreamy music warmed a cold evening up. Unlike anything you've really heard - but put together with so many things that you will have heard before.
electro-pop with interesting noises filling the gaps. classic two vocal play-off between male and female lead - with some great bass lines resonating throughout.
quite rightly the best album of 2009 in everyone's list (well apart from Norman Towers) as it was just fresh and new - and created by 4 kids from SE London who look like they should have ASBO's not their fingers on a musical pulse that is pumping loud and clear.
also - while not on the album - one of the most amazing cover versions (certainly of recent times) as they take Womack and Womack's "Teardrops" apart and re-create in the most stunning manner that it will take you a couple of minutes to work out what it is.
Sound clips for xx by The xx (LP, XL, YT031LP, £12.99)
What their label says...
London, summer, 2009: The xx arrive with their debut album ‘xx’ – a whole new
sound of love, loss and longing. The xx are four kids who formed at London’s Elliot
School in 2005, the south west comprehensive that produced the likes of dubstep
enigma Burial, Hot Chip, and Fourtet's Kieren Hebden: But alone The xx stand,
not only in the singularity of their influences and sound, but in the universal
resonance of their music.
Gingerly dodging the storm cloud of hype hysteria that plagues seemingly every other
new buzz act of the moment, Romy Madley Croft (lead vocals, guitar), Oliver Sim
(lead vocals, bass), Baria Qureshi (keyboards, guitar) and Jamie Smith (beats,
samples) are edging into our hearts. Their unique make-up is a second nature
marriage of 2009’s urban / guitar tribes, in one corner fluttering new wave
inspired reverberation, in the other, plumes of textured, post-dubstep subbass
and figuratively, their defining core of rich R&B vocal textures.
Their debut album ‘xx’ is released on XL Recording’s bleeding edge Young Turks
imprint (Holy Fuck, Gang Gang Dance, El Guincho). Eschewing big name
producers and studios, ‘xx’ sees Jamie continuing in the producer role he’s asserted
since The xx’s conception, tweaking and refining the band’s beautifully crafted songs
into a debut record that’s utterly contemporary and undeniably timeless.
Having recently toured with The Big Pink and Micachu & The Shapes, The xx will
play a handful of highly anticipated shows throughout the summer.
“Perfect… Melancholic pop at its tip top” – i-D; “Confoundingly
Tracklisting:
Intro * VCR * Crystalised * Islands *
Heart Skipped A Beat * Fantasy * Shelter *
Basic Space * Infinity * Night Time * Stars
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