Albujm review:c The xx, Coexist

Published on 09/09/2012 00:00

Young Turks, £11.99

The xx limbo dance under most lo-fi records, and the atmospheric noodlings which won them the Mercury Prize return here in ragtime. Oliver Sim and Romy Madley Croft remain the axis, Jamie Smith the technical whizz, and the tunes are furiously introspective and politely impenetrable.

Angels, for example, is aggressively apologetic and this contrast is their stock in trade – as is feinting to go down a ragingly obvious pop path, only to sidestep up a more oblique sidetrack.

Tides typifies the approach, with one instrument picking out the main melody while everything else whirrs and blips beneath. Swept Away is more plaintive, with echoes of Joy Division in the peculiarly bright bleakness.

This record has a similar effect to listening to the unknown Blue Nile in the 1980s, and is crafted with the same style and stubborn panache. Our Song is tiny and modest, despite big aspirations, while Fiction flirts with being conventional guitar indie pop, bizarrely reminiscent of one-hit wonders The Passions.

When a debut album is buried under a veritable deluge of critical praise and awards, it makes the next one daunting at the very least. So to construct something so impressive within three years is a fantastic achievement. To do so under the weight of such expectations is a very rare feat. With marimbas, if I am not mistaken. Sumptuous stuff.

Colin Somerville

Download this: Reunion, Fiction, Our Song