Coexist
There\'s not a whisper of second album jitters on this follow-up from fearsomely singular childhood friends Jamie Smith, Oliver Sim and Romy Madley Croft. But—while opener “Angel” plays like an even leaner take on their signature witching hour sound—there’s discernible evolution in all those sonic spaces. “Reunion” boasts the unexpected calypso of synthesized steelpan, and “Our Song” is a warped, strangely intimate duet that lets Madley Croft and Sim’s vocals intertwine like tangled limbs.
The London trio follows its now-classic 2009 debut with an album that's even more stripped down and minimal. Coexist takes the most distinctive things about the xx and eliminates virtually everything else.
The success of The xx lies in the firmness with which its songs are built. On the trio’s sophomore record, Coexist, British wunderkind producer Jamie Smith is like a mad scientist creating swirling, house-tinged beats. He throws sharp steel drums next to wobbles that rumble so loudly they engulf headphones, or he…
An album on which the songwriting isn’t as good, but the production is better; that consolidates our idea of who The xx are, but adds little else of its own.
One night in April, the xx set up some recording gear and a couple of cameras in a Tokyo hotel room.
In the years between their debut and Coexist, the xx's sound took on a life of its own, thanks in large part to Drake's hit duet with Rihanna, "Take Care," which sampled Jamie Smith's collaboration with Gil Scott Heron, We're New Here.
The xx’s debut album was a thrilling affair: dark, playful and sparse. Since we last heard from them, they’ve shed a member and, it would seem, some of their sense of adventure. It’s apparent from the opening track and schmaltzy lead single Angels that Coexist is a more sombre, earnest affair; it’s mostly languid, without any of the dancefloor fodder that made the first such a joy.
Back around the time of recording Kid A, Thom Yorke professed that he was "bored of melody."
Having carved out your own sound, won the Mercury Music Prize, lost a band member and become platinum-selling artists with just your debut, what exactly do you do for the follow-up?
The xx's second album is 'another masterpiece of lush ascetism', writes <strong>Kitty Empire</strong>
<p>Madley-Croft and Sim echo each other across the album like two people singing their own versions of the same story, to captivating effect, writes <strong>Michael Hann</strong></p>
The xx's new album is a refinement of their noirish, dubby (and dubsteppy) late-night lover’s pop, writes Neil McComick.