Redefined Sound! Special Die-Cut Jacket! Full of Heart! Delicately Crafted! Includes "Angels" & "Chained"!
Three years later, The xx are back with a new album, Coexist, and a new perspective. Where xx lent in close to whisper in your ear, Coexist gazes warmly in your eyes. Much has happened to lead to this point: most pertinently, they've grown up. Older and wiser, surer yet still so tender, The xx's Coexist finds itself on the other side of heartbreak, when the light returns.
After a break from touring for their 2009 debut album xx, the group's members began writing songs individually before recording the album during November 2011 to May 2012. Guitarist Romy Madley Croft and bassist Oliver Sim drew on personal experiences for their songwriting. For Coexist, The xx drew on the electronic dance music that occurred when they were away on tour in 2010. It was produced by group member Jamie xx, who had pursued electronic dance on other projects and developed as a DJ prior to the album.
Rather than expand on their debut album's sound, the group wanted to minimalize the songs they recorded for Coexist and muted certain elements in post-production. Croft explained their approach in an interview for Pitchfork Media, saying that "throughout pop music, you usually have to make the chorus really big, but we have a way of working where everything has to be played live. That's why there's not loads and loads of guitars or doubled vocals. That's really how we make minimal musicwe're making what we can play on stage. It sets limits, which is good." Jamie xx, who was mostly listening to dark Chicago house music at the time, wanted to keep his approach to production simple and used recording technology such as Logic, Space Echo, preamplifiers, and occasional Casiotones to produce an electronic, emotive sound.
The songs are also spatially arranged and experiment with tension, including listeners' expectations for a dance beat to develop and for a time signature to change. Elements such as vocal and guitar motifs fade to silence throughout the songs. Music critic Kitty Empire perceives "so little sound here and yet so much atmosphere, punctuated by the xx's little sonic signatures", commenting that "no pattern here hangs around for more than a couple of bars, and rarely in multiples of four."
Coexist deals with themes of heartbreak, loneliness, and intimacy. Bassist Oliver Sim and guitarist Romy Madley Croft share lead vocals, which occasionally overlap in call and response interplay and slow crescendos. Sim, who cites Sade as an influence, has coarse, assured vocals, while Croft sings in a shyer style. The lyrics mostly focus on a failing relationship and changes in a romance. Most of the songs have single-word titles that evoke long sentiments.
"Coexist will not surprise old fans. The xx haven't altered their sound, they've refined it, adding a splash of arena-rock guitar here, a clubby 4/4 thump there. There are hints of Timbaland in 'Chained' and Prince in 'Tides.' But, spiritually speaking, they're less funk than soul. Listen to Madley-Croft and Sim duetting on 'Our Song': 'When no one wants to/I will give you me/And we'll be/Us.' They are the pasty English hipster Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway full of heart and, yes, even a bit of sexiness. For the xx, Coexist is a philosophy." - Jody Rosen, Rolling Stone
"Coexist's chilly quiet shouldn't be mistaken for aloofness. The London band invests these 11 songs with real, bruised emotion, whether Romy Madley Croft is exposing her lovesick nerves in 'Angels' or she and Oliver Sim are exuding wounded regret in 'Sunset.' ... [N]ow is a perfect chance to soak them up in their purest form: delicately crafted so that every softly ringing note, and every aching second of dead air, hits like a cymbal crash." - Stephen Thompson, NPR
"There are so many moments of spine-tingling beauty, such as the way 'Reunion' blends almost imperceptibly into 'Sunset,' or Madley Croft and Sim's shared sigh on 'Unfold,'... Coexist's exploration of isolation and intimacy is demanding and rewarding in its bold subtlety and eloquent simplicity." - Heather Phares, allmusic.com
Features:
Vinyl LP
Special Die-Cut Jacket
Limited Time MP3 Download of the Entire Album
Musicians:
Romy Madley Croft, guitar, keyboard, vocals
Oliver Sim, bass, synthesiser, vocals
Jamie Smith, beats, mixing, piano, organ, steelpans
Selections:
1. Angels
2. Chained
3. Fiction
4. Try
5. Reunion
6. Sunset
7. Missing
8. Tides
9. Unfold
10. Swept Away
11. Our Song
Three years later, The xx are back with a new album, Coexist, and a new perspective. Where xx lent in close to whisper in your ear, Coexist gazes warmly in your eyes. Much has happened to lead to this point: most pertinently, they've grown up. Older and wiser, surer yet still so tender, The xx's Coexist finds itself on the other side of heartbreak, when the light returns.
After a break from touring for their 2009 debut album xx, the group's members began writing songs individually before recording the album during November 2011 to May 2012. Guitarist Romy Madley Croft and bassist Oliver Sim drew on personal experiences for their songwriting. For Coexist, The xx drew on the electronic dance music that occurred when they were away on tour in 2010. It was produced by group member Jamie xx, who had pursued electronic dance on other projects and developed as a DJ prior to the album.
Rather than expand on their debut album's sound, the group wanted to minimalize the songs they recorded for Coexist and muted certain elements in post-production. Croft explained their approach in an interview for Pitchfork Media, saying that "throughout pop music, you usually have to make the chorus really big, but we have a way of working where everything has to be played live. That's why there's not loads and loads of guitars or doubled vocals. That's really how we make minimal musicwe're making what we can play on stage. It sets limits, which is good." Jamie xx, who was mostly listening to dark Chicago house music at the time, wanted to keep his approach to production simple and used recording technology such as Logic, Space Echo, preamplifiers, and occasional Casiotones to produce an electronic, emotive sound.
The songs are also spatially arranged and experiment with tension, including listeners' expectations for a dance beat to develop and for a time signature to change. Elements such as vocal and guitar motifs fade to silence throughout the songs. Music critic Kitty Empire perceives "so little sound here and yet so much atmosphere, punctuated by the xx's little sonic signatures", commenting that "no pattern here hangs around for more than a couple of bars, and rarely in multiples of four."
Coexist deals with themes of heartbreak, loneliness, and intimacy. Bassist Oliver Sim and guitarist Romy Madley Croft share lead vocals, which occasionally overlap in call and response interplay and slow crescendos. Sim, who cites Sade as an influence, has coarse, assured vocals, while Croft sings in a shyer style. The lyrics mostly focus on a failing relationship and changes in a romance. Most of the songs have single-word titles that evoke long sentiments.
"Coexist will not surprise old fans. The xx haven't altered their sound, they've refined it, adding a splash of arena-rock guitar here, a clubby 4/4 thump there. There are hints of Timbaland in 'Chained' and Prince in 'Tides.' But, spiritually speaking, they're less funk than soul. Listen to Madley-Croft and Sim duetting on 'Our Song': 'When no one wants to/I will give you me/And we'll be/Us.' They are the pasty English hipster Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway full of heart and, yes, even a bit of sexiness. For the xx, Coexist is a philosophy." - Jody Rosen, Rolling Stone
"Coexist's chilly quiet shouldn't be mistaken for aloofness. The London band invests these 11 songs with real, bruised emotion, whether Romy Madley Croft is exposing her lovesick nerves in 'Angels' or she and Oliver Sim are exuding wounded regret in 'Sunset.' ... [N]ow is a perfect chance to soak them up in their purest form: delicately crafted so that every softly ringing note, and every aching second of dead air, hits like a cymbal crash." - Stephen Thompson, NPR
"There are so many moments of spine-tingling beauty, such as the way 'Reunion' blends almost imperceptibly into 'Sunset,' or Madley Croft and Sim's shared sigh on 'Unfold,'... Coexist's exploration of isolation and intimacy is demanding and rewarding in its bold subtlety and eloquent simplicity." - Heather Phares, allmusic.com
Features:
Vinyl LP
Special Die-Cut Jacket
Limited Time MP3 Download of the Entire Album
Musicians:
Romy Madley Croft, guitar, keyboard, vocals
Oliver Sim, bass, synthesiser, vocals
Jamie Smith, beats, mixing, piano, organ, steelpans
Selections:
1. Angels
2. Chained
3. Fiction
4. Try
5. Reunion
6. Sunset
7. Missing
8. Tides
9. Unfold
10. Swept Away
11. Our Song
