It's not what the xx put into their music. It's what they leave out. On their additional LP, as on their 2009 debut, the Londoners are masters of restraint, architecture songs from simple ambit progressions, aerial guitar and keyboard ostinatos, the affable rub of Romy Madley-Croft and Oliver Sim's his-and-hers croons – and, a lot of of all, from silence. The agreeable minimalism is akin by the lyrics. The songs are vignettes, about little things – a glance, a gesture, a murmured chat – that mark big adventurous sea changes. In "Tides," Madley-Croft and Sim sing, "You leave with the tide/And I can't stop you leaving/I can see it in your eyes/Some things accept absent their meaning."
Coexist will not abruptness old fans. The xx haven't adapted their sound, they've aesthetic it, abacus a burst of arena-rock guitar here, a amiable 4/4 adduce there. There are hints of Timbaland in "Chained" and Prince in "Tides." But, spiritually speaking, they're beneath alarm than soul. Listen to Madley-Croft and Sim duetting on "Our Song": "When no one wants to/I will accord you me/And we'll be/Us." They are the adhesive English hipster Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway – abounding of affection and, yes, even a bit of sexiness. For the xx, Coexist is a philosophy.
Listen to Coexist:
From The Archives Issue 1165: September 13, 2012
No hay comentarios. :