unsurprisingly (or perhaps not?) i don't have any artists beginning with 'x' on my ipod, but a helpful heads up from a friend in the u.k. had alerted me to the existence of 'the xx'. another, new zealand-based, friend had also recently recommended them so that's, like, international hype, right? so i waited until 'x day' and gave them a go.
cue: rookie error. for some unfathomable reason i went to youtube rather than myspace - i.e. tracks listed by just anyone, not necessarily selected by the artist themselves as the best showcase of their sound. the first song i stumbled across was a cover of florence and the machine's 'you've got the love' - i dutifully clicked on it and hated. every. bit. of. it. i think florence is just wonderful - it's ambitious in the extreme to try to cover her, especially when she's still enjoying huge popularity - and this was not a good cover. bland, repetitive, dull, and with none of that joie de vivre that comes through in the original. if the youtube comments are anything to go by, debate rages as to whether the strong female voice that comes in halfway through the song is a sample of florence herself, or just someone who sounds really, really like her -- either way, it was an island in a sea of nothingness - the best bit of the song by miles, although that's not saying much.
so it wasn't a good start between myself and 'the xx' but we persevered and i'm glad we did. in a world of "indie pop" - that truly amorphous genre that really could cover just about anything - 'the xx' produce a different take on pop. the keys are subtle, and do not dominate the sound in an obvious way like so many indie-synth-pop-insert-a-genre-here bands these days. early in my listen, the ethnomusicologist chipped in with his usual, ahem, considered critique </end sarcasm> calling them "scene and boring".... i thought perhaps he'd only heard their florence cover.
at first listen, it's a refreshingly unfussy approach - a kind of restrained sophistication that sets them apart from many of their more "obvious" contemporaries. the florence example highlights to me that they're not vocally strong, but the breathy, almost moody vocals seem to work in the context of their broader, understated sound. they're modest and minimalist, the kind of music i'd listen to over a dinner party with friends, but not the kind of music i'd dance around my lounge to on a saturday night. or even choose to listen to of a weekday morning. perhaps that is damning them with faint praise, but i don't necessarily mean it that way. the subtle sound obviously appeals to a broad audience, which might explain why they've featured in all number of tv shows - gossip girl, east enders, grey's anatomy, law & order, cold case, and even bbc and nbc news.
but while the difference in their sound is refreshing, i worry that in being so inoffensive they might have played it a bit safe - i don't get the feeling any risks are being taken here, and the fact that the songs almost uniformly take on the same mood is evidence of this. similarly, i was disappointed to note that the song that really made my ears perk up - the song that was going to be my proof of diversity in this exercise in restraint - "teardrops", with its interesting opening riff, is itself also a cover. boo. in fact, the longer i listen, the more it aggrieves me to admit i tend to agree with the ethnomusicologist. i wouldn't say they're "boring", but they are certainly same-y.
so, this is a long post for a reason: i still haven't quite figured out how i feel about them. if i had to sum up: i'll always have got off on the wrong foot with them by virtue of the awful cover. i like their minimalism, but think it will wear thin. i look forward to hearing more from them - i'd like to see them prove they're capable of mixing it up with something a bit more diverse. possibly more damning than my dinner party comment is the fact that i would happily recommend this album to my mother, and i suspect that may be its enduring destiny: a brief flirtation in the spotlight, before longterm population of the cd racks of middle-aged hipsters the world over.
No comments:
Post a Comment