Xiu Xiu - Women As Lovers

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Customer reviews
Press release

5...according to our Phil on Thu 24 Jan, 2008.

Xiu Xiu are a band I'm enormously fond of and I admire 'em greatly yet I'm not massively bothered about owning any of their records. A funny one that... The guy's a total loon but he's a complete maverick and he's got to be one of the most inventive musicians out there today. The fragility in his music coupled with his unusual off kilter take on pop is a unique one. His new album 'Women As Lovers' is all over the shop.... The warped emotional universe he creates is really unlike anything else you'd ever hear. Each and every album is a revelation to itself... I don't think I've ever heard anyone sound more troubled on a record in my life. On every single one of his records he sounds like he's about to kill himself. Thankfully he doesn't as he creates something special that anyone into alternative music should really, really check out. Approach with caution but it's worth the time you'll put into it... Also anything which can incorporate the lyric ' Push Your Pastry Into Your Breasts' is a winner in my book. 2 of my favourite things in one sentence. Genius... The album also features a strangely authentic cover of Queen and David Bowie's of Under Pressure featuring the darklord Michael Gira. Nice!!

With a heart too sensitive to accept humanity’s darker side yet also unable to flinch from it, Xiu Xiu is a way of ‘owning your own shadow’. Jamie Stewart has a novelist’s eye for juicy details, and a poet’s ability to wring impossible emotions out of the English language, finding black humour where there is usually horror, finding horror where there is usually apathy. And Stewart’s history-spanning visions of birth and death have never come across more clearly.·The performances, led by Stewart’s one-of-a-kind voice, are intense, virtuosic and painted in a spectrum of acoustic and electronic colours that one would be hard pressed to find equalled on any album. Many of the songs feature what is now officially the live line-up of the group, with Stewart and Caralee McElroy joined by Ches Smith on drums and Devin Hoff on bass.·‘Women As Lovers’ marries the ancient with the futuristic, each in all their beauty and terror. Traditional gongs collide with a rats’ nest of computerized layering. The album also features a duet with Michael Gira of Swans and Angels Of Light.·The first 2000 copies of ‘Women As Lovers’ includes a bonus DVD featuring 16 videos, 4 mini tour videos and 100 photos.

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