{"id":1022,"date":"2010-01-04T15:14:00","date_gmt":"2010-01-04T23:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/2010\/01\/knocked-out-by-the-xx.html"},"modified":"2010-01-04T15:14:00","modified_gmt":"2010-01-04T23:14:00","slug":"knocked-out-by-the-xx","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/2010\/01\/knocked-out-by-the-xx.html","title":{"rendered":"Knocked Out by The xx"},"content":{"rendered":"

Is there an equivalent of air guitar for great production? If not, what is their weird urge to turn knobs, balance tones and make a record as brilliant as this one when I play the debut by London’s The xx?\u00a0It’s my favorite record of ’09 that didn’t end up on Spin’s Top 40 list<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While the album — just called “xx” — \u00a0has been a huge critical hit in the UK (the NME review here<\/a>), it’s still undersung in the US, where the album did not crack the top 100. Part of this, I think, is because the band is deeply rooted in English styles that never quite hit on our shores: These four south London lads and lasses — who met at the high school once attended by Hot Chip — recorded the record primarily at night, drawing from elements like the shoegaze of My Bloody Valentine, the trip hop of Massive Attack and Portishead, and the dryly funk-derived rhythm section style pioneered by post-punk (and especially Joy Division.) It all adds up to something fresh, brooding and dangerous.<\/p>\n

Here<\/a> is one of the album’s best cuts, “Islands.” The UK hit is “Crystalised,”\u00a0here<\/a>. Though, it’s the kind of atmospheric record — with hauntingly intimate male\/female vocals — that really needs to be heard from first note to last.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n

As several critics have observed, though the members were barely out of their teens while recording “xx,” it sounds like the work of an older and more seasoned group hitting a mid-career stride. (I first heard of the group when Robt Christgau discussed them on NPR.) Excited to hear what this band — who have apparently lost one member so far — comes up with next.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is there an equivalent of air guitar for great production? If not, what is their weird urge to turn knobs, balance tones and make a record as brilliant as this one when I play the debut by London’s The xx?\u00a0It’s my favorite record of ’09 that didn’t end up on Spin’s Top 40 list. While […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[88,40,102,335,336],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1022","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-brit-culture","7":"category-indie","8":"category-shoegaze","9":"category-the-xx","10":"category-trip-hop","11":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1022\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}