Album Review!

This site need not only be for visual delicacies. A CD review every-once in a bit doesn't sound like so much of a bad idea, now then does it? Off we go..



Albums have strange timing. Some show up and you listen to because you feel like you might have to. But sometimes, you can listen to an album many times and still not fully appreciate it, or perhaps it just wasn't the moment for you to discover what that album truly has to offer.

Nowadays, with the advent of online purchasing, pirating, ring-toning it can be down right difficult to find and entire album that is worth listening to. This past week I came across a wonderful offering by the relatively new The xx.

Self-titled, the album begins with an 'Intro' track that really sets the pace for the next 12 songs. A distant guitar sends off a lonely, but warm guitar line. Coupled along with drums that open up a landscape that you're not entirely sure where it will end up, but dammit, you must follow. Pulsing through-out with moans, and ahhs from both Romy Madley Croft (female lead vocal, lead guitar) and Oliver Sim (male vocals, bass guitar) add to this beginning that, rarely seen on enough albums, completely sets a tone.

Through-out the next 11 songs, the pace never really picks up, you never really want it to though. As tracks flow by with the liquidity of a stream, Croft and Sim sling lyrics back and forth with the softness and straight forwardness that makes one almost feel as though they're voyeur on the wall of two people very much in love. Not only are the lyrical deliveries that in tune, but combination of lead guitar and bass behind both of these members, adds a definite touch of chemistry that you just don't see very often. Sometimes, one could tune out the lyrics and have a sense of what the song is conveying just by listening to the dance of these two instruments through out this album.

This theme continues through-out the album. Reminiscent of Isobelle Campbell & Mark Lanagan's collaboration of soft-crooning, this album takes on much more of a personality and attitude. It's not often that not only does a band combine lyrical chemistry along with their instrumental match-up. This album plays as a definite must-have.