The xx
xx

Release Date: 2009 | Tracklist

The xx’ - xx is the subject of this review, this is unfortunate if you as it is strikingly boring. The thing is it’s not a bad album, it’s interesting and strangely comforting but, and there is a major but, I didn’t want it to be ‘a bit’ anything I was expecting it to be a truly epic album. This is because I’m a consumer, I read the fact that the xx’ debut was something special, I absorbed the fact that the broadsheet journalist thought that it was far more than a sound of 2009 but that it was ‘a distinctive musical statement of the like we may never get to hear again’ and I appreciated the fact that most of the country’s most influential publications had given it 8’s and 9’s. So I enthusiastically started listening to the ‘album of 2009’ and I can confirm that Intro is a truly brilliant start but, and this is a bigger but than before, it’s the best track on the album by far and it’s instrumental! Now I am not exactly sitting at the centre of the indie universe - in fact I’m quite tired, very cold and am sitting at my desk which isn’t even in an arty suburb of London - but I was under the impression that the introduction wasn’t meant to be the highlight of the album. Clearly I was wrong. This isn’t the problem however; the problem is that listening to the whole album could induce mild narcolepsy. It’s an album which belongs to the group of new age quasi-indie CD’s that occupy the Topman playlist for weeks on end. All these albums work on the same level, they set a riff up here, they frantically attempt to kick start an increase in tempo there but they fail, the riff never materializes and the tempo trundles on. If these are the sounds of a generation we may as well all go into hibernation now, this album is actually a good soundtrack to hibernation.
I will reiterate that xx is a good album, but in no way should it be considered a ‘distinctive musical statement’. This is because it’s been done before, many, many times and each time it has been welcomed with the respect of the ‘scene’ allowing it to be blasted, or rather peacefully radiated, throughout Topman or through the medium of Skins. Unfortunately it does seem that ‘fashionable’ bands are underperforming on the whole; of course there are notable exceptions with the likes of Foals and Young Fathers being the breath of fresh air that current music craved. Whilst xx does have a strong structure and can at times sound original it’s depressing music, made by depressing musicians and probably most enjoyed by depressing listeners. Even writing about it has made me a little depressed. If I’m talking in terms of highlights and lowlights and excluding Intro then I’d firmly place the best of show on Islands a track which could accidentally wake you from your slumber and which actually comes with complimentary vaguely upbeat tempo but which could still accompany a scene of someone receiving the long awaited results of some sort of scan. Islands unexpectedly stops and the tempo seems to be increasing for the better with the ironically named Heart Skipped A Beat which to a clear novice such as myself sounds, well, identical to the previous track. Fantasy gently blows away the misconception that this album is taking a turn towards some kind of excitement; it’s actually quite frustrating.
This is the point where I realised exactly how xx can best be summed up, many of the songs, in fact probably all of them, are nice. There the sort of songs which you can go to bed with and feel happy and warm alongside, yes I know this is what I previously mocked them for but they do, I believe, achieve their aims. The xx set out to make an album which can draw vivid images, and if their nocturnal recording sessions are anything to go by these images were intended to show urban life by night. This album is not a distinctive musical statement but amazingly it’s not as far from one as I originally thought after a couple of listens it all seems to just click into place. The xx have achieved exactly what they wanted to in a way which Glasvegas have done before them, they’ve written a story and done it incredibly well it’s not necessarily one which I enjoyed reading but it’s definitely humbling. It’s an album where the track titles are almost as significant as the music within, when reading it’s clear that they all suggest isolation. One thing you should understand is that this is an album which could easily be misinterpreted, it’s intentions are far from clear and it’s perhaps been seized by the wrong crowd but it’s definitely worth two listens, if you’ve only got time for one you might as well not bother. In conclusion I was very naive. I went into this with the wrong attitude, where I expected to hear Bloc Party I heard The Smiths; which clearly reflects experience. I didn’t really like the music but eventually I found xx truly inspiring. I do still cling to the fact that Intro is the best track by far but that no longer seems such an issue.

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3.8 excellent

Rank: #46 for 2009