Filling a seemingly non-existent gap, The xx’s debut album was released to critical and commercial acclaim; winning the 2010 Mercury Prize and topping the album charts. The band changed the way we look at electronic music, paving the way for the likes of Jessie Ware and The Weeknd.
Choosing an approach for the second album is always difficult. Coexist delves deeper into the world of whispering vocals and brooding guitar movements, aiming to perfect the band’s signature sound.
Inspiration is the usual artistic, but tenuous, story: “I liked the idea of us three coming together; only when the three of us are together, that’s when it exists.” The band wrote songs individually before coming together to record and produce, a strangely detached approach but expected from a band evoking such a reclusive nature.
As interludes go, Jamie xx’s could not have been more successful. Following his excellent work with Gil Scott Heron the one-man electronic wonder continues to impress on production. He ups the BPM towards the middle of album; ‘Reunion’ is a sublime progression from the band’s trademark transient rhythm to a faster and more advanced, but still unbelievably simple sound. The album’s opener ‘Angels’ is nothing less than beautiful. There is, however, a lack of lyrical imagination; I found myself craving a line as creatively simple as “We watch things on VCRs”.
It’s only in Jamie xx’s superbly controlled breaks that you begin to notice things have been refined. Croft’s primal vocals contrast against a guitar so faint it’s sometimes imperceptible. The slightest chord change is laden with emotion. All the while things are timed to perfection; you’re left hanging on the edge of a break, engineered by the country’s best producer. Coexist takes the defining features of The xx (hushed vocals and simple guitar work) and eliminates almost everything else. If the phrase ‘less is more’ is ever applicable, now is the case.