Boy/Girl newcomers cross Mazzy Star with Sleater Kinney.
Take four youthful school-friends with a penchant for gloomy, gothy sounds, give them enough money to make a record, leave to cool for, oh, about three months and voila, they create musical gold. It may be a tried and tested formula, but it works well if The XX’s debut album is anything to go by. The quartet’s music is a mix of Mazzy Star and Sleater Kinney (not too fast, not too slow) and boy/girl vocalists Romy Madley Croft and Oliver Sim expertly layer their voices together, creating sleepy yet salacious songs that are far too awkward to ever be written off as mere “easy listening.”
As well as having obvious Cocteau Twins influences, there are also traces of dub step and R‘n’B ingrained in their album too (think the delicate nuances of Aaliyah rather than the muscle-bound frat-boy-isms of Flo-Rida). Opening track ‘VCR’ is the best example of this, with our heroes incorporating odd images to their finely crafted choruses. Highlight has to be the fantastic ‘Heart Skipped A Beat’ which is almost like a twisted, 00’s take on old 50’s love songs leaving us to conclude that if the meek really will inherit the earth, The XX will be the rulers of all they survey in no time.
KEY TRACK: ‘Heart Skipped A Beat’
British producer channels the sound of home...
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Read More London dream-pop group The xx announce their return to Ireland this December, when they’ll play two nights only at The Olympia Theatre.
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Read More Low-key from the glum expressions to the near matching get-ups (they’re head-to-toe in black, naturally), The XX arrive on stage at the Tripod to a rowdy welcome. Or perhaps it just seems that way because the happily awkward trio are the least rowdy outfit this joint’s ever seen.
Read More Notes are botched here and there but it’s perfectly befitting of the uncomfortable dynamic.
Read More The set will follow the band's long sold out live show this Saturday, December 19.
Read More Following on from their performance at Electric Picnic, South London foursome The XX will play The Button Factory on December 19.
Read More They dress in black and tend to pout a lot. But don’t be put off by the long faces – The XX might just be the year’s most thrilling newcomers.
Read More We have an interview with the indie hotshots in our next issue.
Read More What happens when you cross Mazzy Star with Sleater Kinney? These boy/girl newcomers have the answer.
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