XX

The xx | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 6, 2009)
• Original Release Date: 2009
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Xl Recordings
• ASIN: B002N1AEN2
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Music
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (170 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #669 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #1 in Music > Alternative Rock > Indie & Lo-Fi > Electronic Pop
  • #2 in Music > Alternative Rock > Indie & Lo-Fi > General
  • #4 in Music > World Music > Europe > British Isles > Britain

Track Listings

1. Intro

2. VCR

3. Crystalised

4. Islands

5. Heart Skipped A Beat

6. Fantasy

7. Shelter

8. Basic Space

9. Infinity

10. Night Time

11. Stars

Editorial Reviews

Review

(The xx are) making hauntingly beautiful music with its electro pop-soul jams and emotive lyrics. --Nylon

Fully formed and thoughtful. (8.7 Best New Music) --Pitchfork

The xx are worth the hype. --NPR, All Things Considered

Product Description

The Xx unique make-up is an inadvertent second nature marriage of 2009's urban/guitar tribes, in one corner fluttering new wave indebted reverberation, in the other, plumes of post-dubstep sub-bass and figuratively, their defining core of rich R&B vocal textures. The enveloping vocal partnership of Romy and Oliver is one that would've dropped-jaws in any decade this century, and set amidst a shivering soundscape of beats and plucks, their bedroom-reared concrete-soul is being justly heralded as the UK's most original and treasured alt. pop artifact of late.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

86 of 95 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Favorite Debut of 2009 So Far August 25, 2009

By S. Barr

Format:Audio CD

The xx have been all over blogs for a while now, and I first caught a track from them when their demos were leaked online. It was "Crystalised" and I was totally in love. When XX was released last week, I immediately bought it, and it has been playing through my headphones and speakers ever since.

The opening track, "Intro," is amazing on its own. Instrumental, if you consider their vocalization (without lyrics) an instrument. It sets the tone for the entire album, withe a chill yet building sound, and an ever thumping bass. The music seems simple, but fresh. There are moments in the album where the repeated echoing notes remind me of early Interpol and some of the riffs harken late 80s new wave, but I have a hard time drawing real parallels to other bands. Some of the lyrics make me nostalgic for a modern/retro 90s life I've never had ("watch things on vcrs, with me &talk about Big Love"), and the almost-fuzzy, understated-but-prominent male and female vocals, which both compete & come in as a chorus, remind me of some lazy love affair. Actually, the entire album seems to be an ode to this lazy love affair.

This really is my favorite debut of 2009. Incredibly impressive and something you want to get your hands on, I promise. Here's the tracklist, since amazon.com doesn't have one up yet:

01. Intro
02. Vcr
03. Crystalised
04. Islands
05. Heart Skipped A Beat
06. Fantasy
07. Shelter
08. Basic Space
09. Infinity
10. Night Time
11. Stars

50 of 55 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Stunning Debut September 4, 2009

By S. Finefrock VINE™ VOICE

Format:Audio CD

I've had this on constant replay for the last couple days and am now on about my 12th listen, and I'm still captivated. This is one of the most impressive albums that I've heard in some time. Imagine 17 Seconds era Cure with Elizabeth Fraser from the Cocteau Twins sharing lead vocals, produced by Timbaland. That's the starting point for this bewitching set of tunes. From the opening INTRO through to the closing STARS, every song is a highlight and flows perfectly into the next one. Languid guitars, spare beats and casual, conversational tag team male-female vocals created a dreamlike sound with plenty of space and emotion. I'm cueing it up for another listen. Very highly recommended.

45 of 51 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The XX - XX October 6, 2009

By Andrew Vice

Format:Audio CD

From the opening notes of "Intro," I think it's obvious that this band is on to something. People often say Spoon's strength lies in their ability to edit their sound until only the bare essentials of music are left: a beat and a melody. Well whatever it is that Spoon got onto, The XX seem to have taken it a step further, somehow managing to cut their sound down even further. This is certainly a challenging album, but it's simultaneously incredibly rewarding once you really get into the groove. The band's female singer has a beautiful, sultry voice, and she's perfectly suited to the band's lean, taut style. However, because the band's sound is so idiosyncratic, I would highly recommend that prospective fans try before they buy. Even if this is one of the year's best debuts, it is also going to be a divisive album, and it really isn't for everyone. But if you can give the record a few spins, I think just about anyone will be able to get why these guys have been picking up rave reviews across the internet.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars XX Marks the SpotSpot March 5, 2010

By G. D. Brennan III VINE™ VOICE

Format:MP3 Music|Amazon Verified Purchase

I fell for this album at first listen.

I didn't even have to listen all the way through; I was hooked by the first spare atmospheric guitar pluckings on the unfortunately-titled "Intro." (I only complain because it seems like a dismissive title; the song is so much more than a mere lead-in to other things.) Granted, I was predisposed to like it; I'd been seduced from afar by the rave reviews, the sexy group name and album title--is anything sexier than an X? Yes, four Xs--and the cool mystique. But there's a lot of well-reviewed stuff that sounds good in the dim light of a first encounter but doesn't hold up to the morning's harsh judgment, and the harsher judgment of succeeding days.

This, on the other hand, turned out to be one of those albums that gets better and better as I get to know it; I listen to such albums and end up almost amazed that they didn't already exist somehow; there is something primal and right about them, something sonically equivalent to a tetris piece that materialized from nowhere and fell exactly into a deep hole inside me that I somehow hadn't noticed before.

Granted, this album works partly by evoking other great albums that have come before, all the masterpieces of shoegaze and dubstep and trip-hop; in some ways it succeeds more as culmination and synthesis than as departure. Still, it succeeds at both; it differentiates itself because it manages to be warm and cool at the same time, without being lukewarm.... The music is spare and icy, a nighttime cityscape viewed through a high-rise window; the heat comes from the vocals, a male and female voice talking to each other at pillow distance or closer; they only want enough backdrop to set the mood, and no more, because they're doing their damndest to never leave the bedroom--or, better yet, the bed.

But--importantly--it isn't the sound of love, exactly. It is many things, but it is not quite that; it is desire and codependency and lust, and the fear of how much colder it will all feel when one or the other leaves. The words aren't just the lies one hears on the radio or whispered in one's ear; they're also the real things one hears in one's head and sees written across a lover's face while their lips are busy saying other things: "Sometimes I still need you" and "I think I'm losing where I end and you begin" and "I'm setting us into stone piece by piece before I'm alone" and so on, and so forth. ("I'm sure you heard it before," they sing on "Heart Skipped a Beat," and if you're anything like me, you have heard it before, or thought it, or said it, or lived it--or all of the above. And you soundtracked it to Portishead, or Burial, or Massive Attack, or My Bloody Valentine, or Slowdive--but not this, because, of course, it didn't exist yet.)

And yet it does deserve to exist, and so much more--to be a soundtrack of its own, to be noticed and obsessed over in its own right, for its own considerable strengths. The XX are bold enough to dispense with most of the drumming and thereby create something new and unique; they are bold enough, too, to keep in both the warm breath of smoky soul and whispered lies, and the cold backdrop outside--the distant city, and the realities one can't hold at bay forever.

Still, again, this is one of those albums that leaves you crazy when you try to leave it cold. Like all lovers, it reminds you of others, and like all the best, it has its flaws, and it somehow manages to be perfect and unique in spite of them, and maybe even because of them. If you're anything like me, you might come up with reasons not to like it, or to hold it at arm's length. (I told myself that the male vocals were too mumbly, and the female ones too breathy, and that the songs were too varied in quality, because they range from "Perfect" to "Really Great.") Eventually, though, you'll find yourself wondering, "When am I going to spend time with xx again?" and realizing you just got together yesterday, and thinking you still need another fix anyway. And--and this is the truest test--you will be willing to forsake time with your other loves (Sorry, Joanna Newsom!) to make it happen. Actions speak louder than words, and the play count tells me more about my feelings for this album than anything I can set down here. Read more ›

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Hands- Down, Amazing! April 6, 2012

By Rilez

Format:Audio CD

Let me start by saying; This is the first time I have ever reviewed anything online. I have fallen in love with this album over the last year. So much so, it compelled me to write my first review.

While many of the tracks can hold their own, I believe the whole is greater than the sum of it's parts. This is an album meant to be heard from start to finish. The intro sets the appropriate tone for the album's entirety. Taking you on a journey which gets better every time you hear it. It's mesmerizing melodies tell the take of a full cycle of love. Infatuation, lust, love, dispair, and rediscovery, narrated by two haunting voices that balance one another perfectly.

While the musicianship isn't enough to carry it alone, the composure is nothing short of genius. This is a perfect example of musical minimalism. The absences of notes makes the seemingly simplistic melodies keep your interest throughout. The songwriting is sheer poetry. Not a word's meaning is wasted or lost. This is a piece of artistry which is meant to be heard. This is something you can put on in the background, or personally experience through headphones, absorbing every last word and note. Their next release can't come soon enough.