The xx
xx
(XL, 2009)

The xx seemed to appear from out of nowhere, but all of a sudden everyone is talking about them. I received an email and a download link in my inbox a little over a month ago, and took a listen, having absolutely no idea what to expect because I had actually never heard them, or even heard of them. And then suddenly, within a few days, their name was everywhere, from my Scottish friend who lives down the street telling me about their upcoming show, to widespread blog coverage, to conversational utterances about them becoming more and more frequent, ’til it all culminated in the spectacle of CMJ, a festival made for a band like the xx to come to prominence. They played a ton of shows and seemed to be one of the few common denominators of the entire festival, one of the few bands who rose above the multitudes to make the trek and expense of NYC actually worth something, until, suddenly, they announced that they were taking a break, citing exhaustion and the loss of their guitarist to the rigors of the road and the toils of such an insistent lifestyle. Whew.

Let’s start from the beginning. The xx makes breathy bedroom beats; sexy, ambient music that melts like ice cubes, cool and collected as it smolders under a licking candle flame. A quartet from South London who met at the Elliott School in 2005 (the same place that spawned Burial, Hot Chip, and Four Tet), the xx has a sound way beyond their young years, assured and composed in a way that many bands of various levels of notoriety don’t always manage. They aren’t making catchy, beat-driven music or high-energy fluff that usually gets the kids talking; rather, this is a British-bred take on slowcore. Their roots together go way back—to childhood in the instance of Romy Madley Croft (vocals/guitar) and Oliver Sim (vocals/bass)—and that foundation is translated through their wistful melancholia and sultry confidence that can be so fearlessly channeled in those swingin’ years of youth. When uninhibited debuts are executed this breezily, the indie underground usually tends to realize it is worth the listen—case in point. Hence, today we are practically dizzy in the aftermath of the xx’s quick ascension to become one of the bands to take the autumn of 2009 by storm.

Sure, xx is a really good album, but I’m surprised that it caught on the way it did. Its allure is understated; it’s not exactly bright and catchy. But xx is a grower. Opener, the appropriately titled “Intro”, is a mellow-paced song that signals where the rest of the album is headed with its tempered handclaps and breathy vocals, which melt directly into the following track, “VCR”, which finds Madley Croft singing, “You used to have all the answers / And you, you still have them, too / And we, we live half in the daytime / And we, we live half at night.” Perhaps a mantra for the next generation of disillusioned youth?

The rest of the album follows suit, song dripping into song, softly simmering just underneath coolly collected studio sounds and vocals, tracks with names like “Islands”, “Shelter”, “Fantasy”, ending in a trifecta of celestially imbued atmosphere: “Infinity”, “Night Time”, and “Stars”, an expansive and ethereal way for this buzzing band to end their first album. Where they’ll take it from here, if they can take it anywhere, we’ll just have to wait and see.

Listen: Various Tracks [at myspace.com]

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