Weekly Release Spotlight: The xx

Posted on 11/16/2009

The xx

xx

[Young Turks]

Teenage hormones have always been great fodder for pop music. Somewhere between angsty (Romeo and Juliet) and cheesy (Gossip Girl) lies an elusive space where adults can still revel in the trials and tribulations of young love and loathing without feeling self-conscious. The xx might tip toward the angsty side of the scale, but this band of English adolescents’ debut album, xx, is truly a grown-up affair.

With achingly emo lyrics (for the most part about sex and love) and simple song structure, xx hearkens back to Glass Candy’s dancey minimalism as well as the coolness and the somber, yet heartfelt, subject matter of Black Celebration-era Depeche Mode. “Shelter” is a quietly epic gloom-fest that evokes the band’s hometown of dreary London. This song is presumably what it must feel like to slowly, poetically drown in a dark ocean (or perhaps to shoot heroin?) with the repeated line “Can I make it better with the lights turned on?” Simple guitar work, languid bass and a drum machine mark more upbeat (relatively speaking) songs like “Basic Space,” “Crystalised” and “Islands.” Guitarist Romy Madley Croft and bassist Oliver Sim’s subdued boy-girl vocals are a sadder, less bratty brand of the cheeky storytelling that bands like Black Kids, Magic Wands or The Blow are known for - in fact, Croft’s voice is eerily reminiscent of The Blow’s Mikhaela Maricich.

Even though xx was just released in August (October in the U.S.), several of the songs have already been licensed to TV. The band has figured out how to make those familiar adolescent feelings palatable and commercially viable, which isn’t such a big deal in and of itself. The bigger challenge lies in doing that without being boxed into the vapid gobbledygook we all know as The Pop Song About Love. Leave it to three early 20-somethings to figure that one out.

Written by Dana Raidt, Radio K volunteer.