I'm sensing a theme here
Full disclosure: the xx can do no wrong in my eyes. I've been waiting for this album for years, and the day I finally picked it up was like Christmas in September. I'm probably the worst person to provide an unbiased review of their beautiful sonicscapes, so don't read this expecting to find me harping about how the band should grow instead of regressing and peeling back their sound. Is this album different than their debut xx (reviewed by me here!)? Sure is. Does it make it any worse? Hell no. I'm going to try and answer whether or not they made it as good, or possibly even better.
How am I going to do that you ask? Well, with words of course, but also my (newly patented - don't steal this shit) xx-rating system. Was it good? Cool, we'll give it one x. Was it stellar? We'll give it a full two x's. Could they probably have left it off the album and it wouldn't have mattered? No x's for you! A somewhat limited system, yes, but here's why it works: the xx don't make bad music. It's not grating, it's not particularly challenging, and it's not annoying. If anything, you might fault the group for taking a turn to the boring with this album, but it depends on your tastes. This trio doesn't half-ass anything though; you can hear the work they put into each song, and the meticulous care veritable bandleader Jamie xx takes with each track. Read on:
1 | "Angels" | 
When I unwrapped the CD and threw it on in my car, I swear this song ran chills through my body. I'd been compulsively listening to this track since it was released in the summer, but it was wholly different playing in my car than it was on my phone or laptop; the plucking guitar, the deep, deep bass drum, and Romy Madley-Croft's tender voice made this a can't-miss single either way. That guitar? Damn if it doesn't evoke some kind of happy melancholy (I know that's not really possible). It nimbly flips back and forth between notes, setting up Romy's sad, sad vocals.
So where does that sense of happiness come in? It's that really weird, deep, spiritual feeling you get when you encounter the holy or divine in the most depressing of circumstances. The same way you believe a loved one is in a better place after they die. The same way you take the bad things in life with a grain of salt, because you know someone up there has better plans waiting. "And the end comes too soon/like dreaming of angels/and leaving without them/being as in love with you as I am" is as powerful as it gets on this album. It's about loving, but still being able to let go. In that spiritual sense, it's about letting the afterlife embrace that loved one ("they will be as in love with you as I am") the same way you did.
I could go on for days breaking down the amazing lines from this opening song, and it's only just a shade under three minutes long. "Light reflects from your shadow" can be interpreted as the warm afterglow of someone's departure. "And the end isn't known/but I think I'm ready/as long as you're with me" can speak figuratively to a higher power, or literally to knowing that someone you love is going to be right there with you along the way. I'll never get tired of this song. I'll never stop feeling the deep emotions it evokes. I'll probably never stop getting the chills when those first few notes are strummed.
2 | "Chained" |
Now it's Oliver Sim's turn on vocals, though Romy jumps in a few beats later to help out with one of the many duets on this album. That's one thing: this album makes stunning use of the interplay of the two distinct voices. It's not new territory - xx mined it well some years ago - but it's an area whose genius is oft overlooked in indie music. When it is broached, the results are usually memorable: Alphabeat's Scandanavian pop gems, Peter, Bjorn, and John on "Young Folks", Tegan & Sara's everything...there are so many examples of two voices being better than one; the xx are simply continuing that art.
"Angels" and "Chained" were the two singles this summer, released a few weeks apart, but serving as tantalizing bait for the new album. "Chained" is even shorter than the other track, with one of my favorite comments on the YouTube video for the song being "2:48...worst part" (that's the endtime of the song, folks). This made it mind-numbingly replayable [spellcheck tells me both of those aren't words], but for a reason I was eventually able to place my finger on: there's such consistency throughout the song, such un-noticed repetition, that you could play it five times over without realizing you've been listening to the same song over and over and over again. Aside from the initial cymbal-rattling, it's basically one beautiful drone of Burial-inspired, off-kilter machine drums, and Romy and Oliver's call-and-response.
The other very strange, very weird-for-music part of "Chained"? It goes somewhat with the point above about repetition, but try and follow here: 1.) if you think this is a good song, you will like it, 2.) if you like it, you will find it too short, 3.) if you find it too short, you will keep playing it over and over, 4.) if you keep playing it over and over, you realize its sameness makes it hard to realize where exactly in the song you are, unless it's the start, end, or seconds-long break right before the end, 5.) at a certain point, you hear the "bom-ba-dun" and expect the song to end as soon as it started.
Did you follow that? Alright, let me take it one step further. That constant fear of the song ending? That's what being in a relationship is like. "Did I hold you too tight/did I not let enough light in"? That's you being left wondering what you did wrong when it suddenly ends. I'm getting so meta right now that you'll forgive me if I'm not making sense, but the xx accomplish something on this track that goes beyond lyrics and music. They burrow so deep into your brain that the sadness you feel for the song ending is the same sadness they're trying to convey through the lyrics themselves. I'll stop now before the sphere turns back into itself.
3 | "Fiction" | --
There's propulsiveness behind this track, but nothing that's really doing it for me. The drums aren't too bad, but nothing exciting kicks in until a minute on, and then it's the same steel-drum-y guitar that's featured in "Angels". It's dark, and it fits the mood, and when the guitar gets going again around 1:30 in, it's not the worst song, but given its wind-down and overall blandness: coulda done without it.
4 | "Try" |
This isn't the worst song, but it's not the best either. It's more sparse even than "Fiction", which actually works to its advantage. The whining synth in the background makes it slightly annoying to listen to, but the duet is back in force here, and carries the track when it needs it. Most of the xx's songs sound like you're trapped in a cave, but when there are two talented singers sharing that cave with you, it makes that darkness a bit more bearable. Romy delivers a particularly good vocal performance here, with the instrumentation dialed down around her, letting such great vocal chops shine through. It helps that the whining synth disappears around then too...only to reappear with 30 seconds left. But on the whole, not a bad tune.
5 | "Reunion" |
If you want to talk about one-two punches (and I have), Coexist has to be one of the few great albums I've heard with two such distinctly great pairings on the same LP. Now, this is all relative. A great album can be great on the whole, but there can still be pairs (or trios, or whatever) of better-than-the-rest songs on an album. "Angels" and "Chained" are one such pairing, "Reunion" and "Sunset" are the other.
It's the first track that offers a glimpse of all the side-work Jamie xx did in his time off from the group between albums, incorporating his skillful use of Carribean-style steel drums with art-school indie (yes, the xx come from the same British music school Hot Chip did - they're not your average high school band formed in your parents' garage). The tune is interesting enough until about the 2:00 mark, when I initially thought the whole thing just kind of faded off and ended. It actually comes right back at you with a whole new vibe, Romy singing wistfully about "did I/see you/see me/in a new light?", Oliver joining her for a bar or two, then some downtempo, trance-y beats taking over the whole thing from there. Solid tune, great drumbeat transition...
6 | "Sunset" |
...to this track, which is probably the most meaningful to me. I was still in the process of getting over a relationship when I heard this song. I still remember, I was driving across the bridge the morning after I got the album, and I paid close attention to the words that were hitting so close to home. Earlier in the summer, I had a talk with a good friend about how strange it is that people who are so close and intimate can simply stop talking like nothing had ever happened between them; like those times were with other people, or that it was in another life. "I always thought it was sad/that we act like strangers/after all that we had/we act like we had never met". That fucks you up.
Maybe music doesn't mean the same thing to you now as it did when you were younger. I hope that it doesn't. I've written on here before about how club and dance music is more appealing to you as you get older, because you know what it's like to go out and drink and dance. That applies to other arenas of life as well: break-up songs mean more at 23 than 13, and maybe even gangsta rap means more if you're dealing cocaine on the corner at 25 instead of hearing it glamorized in a Young Jeezy song at 15. I'm going to refract this back on indie music though.
When I was first delving into the world of alternative, I read about how it was more emotional, literate music; stuff that was too tender or revealing for the mainstream, and was a turn-off to some. Taylor Swift? Yeah, she's popular, but how many people have truly felt the things she feels? Those kiss-offs she pumps out? I'm not a girl, so maybe they go through that and feel that way, but it's not relatable to me. Drake rapping about his money and all the women he's been with; I can't relate to that. Nickelback...they sing about relatable feelings, but not in any way I want to listen to. There's a certain art to conveying feeling without making it obvious that's what you're doing. The xx accomplish that beautifully on "Sunset".
The most surprising part? It's one of the more danceable songs on the album! The momentum comes from the guitar and drums, until an arching synth comes in, stopping the noise and draping the whole affair in deep, throbbing bass, before dropping the beat again. It's all got the feeling of dancing in a room that's adjacent to an actual club; you can hear the strains of dance music, but it's the faint warble of drum and bass, not outright aggression and sound. The nimbleness and understated rhythms of the xx are uniquely rewarding in that way.
7 | "Missing" |
The common complaint I hear about Coexist is the sameness of the album. I'll give people that - it's almost hard to figure out what song you're listening to from track to track, which is why I almost have to give each song about a minute to realize if it's one I like or not. Some get there, some don't. "Missing" does a weird job of straddling that fine line. Oliver's voice is downright whiny and annoying at points in this track; when he stretches his voice out, it doesn't have nearly the same impact or beauty to it that Romy's voice does (total and complete digression here: you know who has a wicked voice when they really let go? Mo Kenney. That girl can sing. Just putting that out there. Saw her last week; my friend and I both agreed on that point.)
So the issue here is sticking with it. If the song was like everything after the first two minutes of "Missing", then it would get two x's. Unfortunately, the first part is only saved by Romy cooing "how did I/how did I/how did I" in the background. Actually, the lesson is, don't let Oliver try to sing that much. After two minutes though? Wow, that guy can get his soul-brother on. He takes over Romy's cooing part, they throw in some organ-sounding synth, and the whole thing sounds like the most gothic gospel church choir you could find on a Sunday. Call it a saving grace.
8 | "Tides" |
Heck if I don't start bobbing my head unsafely around in the driver's seat when this one comes on. The drum hits are so expertly executed in "Tides" that it's hard to stay still. When the guitar comes in, it's the instrumental equivalent of Romy and Oliver trading lyrics. Again, the song starts a capella, so you're left wondering "what's going on here?" before anything kicks in (and that anything is appropriately an electronic kick-drum, if I'm not mistaken). Once it does though, there's the kind of momentum that is sorely lacking on a couple other tracks here.
It's funny - the whole album is generally mid- to downtempo, but some songs feel the brunt of that more than others, barely inching along, while tunes like "Tides" and "Sunset" get the danceable treatment. I don't know if a more consistent vibe over the whole album (in terms of pacing, not sonics) would have made it better or just made each track even more indistinguishable from the others, but it would be neat to hear.
9 | "Unfold" |
Another song that starts off slow and boring. 0:58. Mark that down. That's when Romy breaks in with an "ohh-ohhh" and it truly begins. It's also weird that they chose these two particular titles for these tracks; track 8 actually 'unfolds' much more than 9 does, and 9 has the undulating quality to its guitar you'd expect from waves lapping against the shore with the 'tides'.
Whatever; this is still a really solid slow song, which is something lacking from this album. Where Coexist belabours with "Fiction" and "Try" near the beginning, "Unfold" kills it, in the best way. The solemnity is ever-present, but the band does a much better job of presenting it, keeping the song moving even when it feels like it might collapse under its own depressing weight. Never have "ohhs" sounded be-- wait, yeah, they have, but they work really well on, like, this album and stuff...
10 | "Swept Away" |
Whoaaa now, a song that's five minutes long and with two words in the title? This is craziness by the xx's standards (nothing else actually goes longer than 3:57...or has more than seven letters.........I'm OCD). But that's not the only place this track diverges: if "Tides" offered a faint echo of what it would be like to hit the floor to an xx tune, they make it a reality with the beat-tastic drums in this tune. It's still not in your face, and it's not hitting anyone over the head with sheer I-can't-stay-off-the-dancefloor-ness, but it sure does a great job at trying for it.
It's like everyone decided "meh, the album's almost done, you guys wanna muck around and try and do something vaguely upbeat?" Jamie xx must have obliged, because there are few words in "Swept Away", most of the song focusing on the multiple (which in this case is like, four, maybe) layers of sound, all working in conjunction to keep things interesting before the album closes out.
11 | "Our Song" |
...then just as soon as that veritable dancing fever/fervor comes, it's gone, as the trio slows it down for the final track. There's still beauty in the slowly-marching warbles of drum and synth, but "Our Song" almost serves as fodder for those who attack Coexist as a let-down of a companion to debut xx, where the group has done this kind of tempo, but with better execution. That much is true of tracks like this, with there being more flourish and impact on the group's previous effort.
However, it doesn't take away from the fact that Oliver Sim, Romy Madley-Croft, and Jamie xx have put together another stellar album that makes astounding use of space and sound, pulling together disparate influences like breakbeat and Carribean rhythms in unconscionable ways. There's a depth to it, a relatable meaning, that's absent in a lot of other music right now. The xx have always been so great at bringing something to the table by taking something off of it, and they've done it again on Coexist.
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