|
(Clicka qua per la versione Italiana)
England's
Xx, consisting of
vocalist and guitarist Roomy Madley Croft,
vocalist and bassist Oliver Sim,
keyboardist Baria Qureshi and
beatmaker Jamie Smith,
penned the introspective and confessional folk-soul ballads of
Xx (Young Turks, 2009).
The lazy and limping single Basic Space barely scratches the
surface. Their specialty, the
naive whispered male-female duets epitomized by Islands, is best
implemented in the
intimate and colloquial Heart Skipped A Beat, in the
ghostly invocation of Fantasy, in the
dark blues-jazzy Shelter,
and in the dreamy Stars.
The most evocative song, Infinity, sounds like a dub version of an Ennio Morricone soundtrack featuring Chris Isaak dueting with a little girl.
A more straightforward style surfaces in the
atmospheric synth-pop of VCR, in the lively Night Time,
and especially in the catchy singalong for sensual vocal harmonies and swampy polyrhythm Crystalised.
Xx's subdued sound was the equivalent of trip-hop with dubstep rhythms
or other fashionable styles replacing hip-hop rhythms.
Coexist (2012) is a collection of bland, lifeless, whispered dance-pop tunes. Tides is perhaps the least tedious.
Meanwhile, James Smith, aka Jamie Xx, remixed Gil-Scott Heron's album I'm New Here (2010) as We're New Here (2011)
and then, after
the single All Under One Roof Raving (2014),
debuted solo with In Colour (2015), a collection
of catchy, fashionable, downtempo dance songs such as Loud Places
and Gosh.
The band returned for
I See You (2017), which contains
bland pop duets over a simple electronic dance beat like I Dare You
that occasionally sound like a damaged version of Eurythmics (Dangerous)
or attempt more sophisticated melodrama (A Violent Noise).
On Hold incorporates a bit of rapping and a more intricate beat.
|
