the xx
replaying the English band's first album (2009)
in August 2009, the xx released their debut album, xx. at the turn of the decade, the electro-tinged minimalist indie record won over many romantic adolescents, including myself. it even secured the band a Mercury Prize for best album the following year. xx was released on the label Young (formerly Young Turks, an imprint of XL Recordings), where the band is still signed.
for this month’s album revisit, i’ve chosen the CD for xx in my collection.1 i can’t determine exactly when i purchased the album, but it wasn’t too long after the release, as i distinctly remember going to a local Best Buy to get it. i played it heavily on my Xbox and downloaded the tracks onto my MP3 player—most likely, it was the Sansa Clip model (the same brand of MP3 player i was surprised to find again at the aforementioned Best Buy a couple of years ago). this time around, my replay focused on the CD with some streaming involved.
before i get into the tracklist, i’ll set the scene for the sound by highlighting the band members, the name, and the era this album was released.
the band
at the time of release, the xx was comprised of Jamie Smith (more widely recognized as Jamie xx), Romy Madley Croft, Oliver Sim, and Baria Quareshi. xx is their only album as a quartet; Quareshi departed the band during their inaugural tour. from there, the band would continue as a trio.
Smith, Madley Croft, Sim, and Quareshi were all childhood friends in London—Madley Croft and Sim have known each other since toddler days, and they met the other two bandmates as preteens. Smith handled the production on xx (the credits list his contribution as “beats and MPC”), whereas Madley Croft and Sim take joint responsibility for the singing and songwriting. Sim also played the bass, while Madley Croft played guitar. Quareshi served as both the keyboardist and guitarist.
i don’t think i was ever curious enough to seek out or determine the band’s definitive inspirations until now (namely post-punk, alt-rock, electronica, and R&B); i just knew i liked the music and that i connected to it on a transcendent level. years later, i understand that i was tuned into the encoded queerness within the songwriting. both Madley Croft and Sim are openly gay, and an article in The Guardian noted that they don’t use gendered pronouns in their songs.
it also makes sense that i’d specifically resonate with the band’s R&B influence. their music recalls some of the heartfelt yearning often associated with that genre. it’s further proof of how valuable R&B is as a Black American export and that the genre can never truly die; it just morphs and occupies space on new tongues both at home and abroad.
the name (and the merits of lowercase)
the xx spoke about the meaning of their name (or lack thereof) during an i-D interview conducted in 2010.
“The name was the first thing we came up with before making music. Playing around with words that we liked. And we liked Xs. It doesn’t really have a meaning, it’s a symbol. What does it mean?”
i also think of “xx” as a common letter or email sign-off, similar to xoxo. i personally use “xx” when drafting to delineate sections. i won’t credit it fully to the xx, but this period coincided with the beginning of my affinity for typing in lowercase (it did not originate with the proliferation of Substack tho(ugh)t daughter2 discourse, as folks might be led to believe; some of us are true to this, not new to this).
while researching for this album revisit, i sifted through my Tumblr archive to see when i first shared anything related to the xx. i found a link to their song “Infinity” from August 2011, with a simple caption of the title in lowercase. this era was coupled with the prominence of themes like cybercultural fashion and punk as an aesthetic (rather than a philosophical and political ideology). many youth discovered themselves through online aesthetics, and the lines between subcultures blurred increasingly by the week (think upside-down crosses on pastel dip-dye leggings). some styles i tried on didn’t quite fit, but many elements persist today. typing in lowercase has remained.
similar to the xx’s explanation for their name, lowercase is an aesthetic choice that i appreciate because it’s unconventional. i could tell you myriad theories and use cases of its application, but this is not the essay for that. for me, it’s akin to a style guide for my personal publications—it takes commitment to stylize one’s work this way. i do capitalize proper nouns to bring more emphasis to those details. but overall, must everything online be so formal all the time?3
similar to my preference for lowercase typing and uppercase handwriting, i could juxtapose that with the band’s name being lowercase and the tracklist for xx in ALL-CAPS.
play-by-play
now, onto my recent playback of xx. listening to this album after many years prompted me to study the album art with more depth. i appreciate its simplicity and how the cut-out X on the front is filled in by the album booklet. the front and back covers of the booklet are equally minimalist: white with very little text besides “Thank You” on the back. the lyric pages are full of abstract art, and i’ve scanned in a few examples throughout. credits attribute the photography to the band, the art direction to Phil Lee (the then-creative director for XL Recordings), and the overall design to both parties.
the album itself clocks in at just under 40 minutes with a total of 11 tracks. the comprehensive sound is downtempo-adjacent. i’ve been told before that some of the music i like is “sleepytime music,” and this album is no exception. i’m not particularly bothered by that descriptor, but i think it’s more of a “what frequency are you vibrating at?” kinda thing—there’s a time and place for everything. that being said, my revisit occurred at 4 PM, but i could see this album being just as compelling a listen at 4 AM.
1. “Intro”
once i hit play on my stereo, i laid on the floor and pantomimed each dramatic drumbeat, feeling equally moved by the subtlety of the piano and the sparse vocal harmonies that appear halfway through this instrumental intro track. i also giggled as i did this because it reminded me of the recent memeification of “polyphonic perception.”
2. “VCR”
i recall hearing this song in commercials. in alignment with my project a filmless score, where i include the known film & TV sync placements for the music on my featured playlists, i looked up this band on Tunefind. many songs from this album have appeared throughout popular media.
3. “Crystalised”
this was one of my favorite songs for the longest time. i really enjoy the outro, where they sing “go slow” as the tempo slows down and the song fades out.
“You've applied the pressure
To have me crystalised
And you've got the faith
That I could bring paradise”
4. “Islands”
this is a fun song that kinda bleeds into the next track. the repetitive choreography in the song’s video, as the band sings in the center of the dancers, is equally entertaining.
“I am yours now
So now I don't ever have to leave
I've been found out
So now I'll never explore”
5. “Heart Skipped a Beat”
like much of the music and popular culture from the late aughties, i consider this song to be very 1980s-adjacent. one of my favorite parts is the call-and-response moment where Sim and Madley Croft sing the following lyric with each other: “sometimes i still need you.”
6. “Fantasy”
speaking of “skipped,” i don’t think i previously played this one all that much. on this revisit, it is haunting and arresting. highlights include: the distortion, the syncopation of the beats sounding like hand claps, and a beautiful piano solo.
7. “Shelter”
this song has such a sensual momentum. if i were to put this in a coming-of-age film, it would appear during the moment where the main characters/love interests decide if they want to take their relationship to new heights by clearing up any confusion about the other person’s feelings.
“Maybe I had said something that was wrong
Can I make it better with the lights turned on”
8. “Basic Space”
“Basic Space” picks up the pace of the album considerably. if you’re dancing along, this is the moment where you can switch from swaying to a lil two-step.
9. “Infinity”
this song always reminds me of “Wicked Game” by Chris Isaak, and i cherished both of these songs so much during my adolescence. i specifically played “Infinity” during the midnight hour of my very long college radio graduation set (which lasted for 12 hours). our station was pretty strict about playing non-mainstream music, so a grad shift was a chance to play whatever we wanted.
10. “Night Time”
this isn’t a song i played that frequently. admittedly, i got caught up in a nostalgic whirlwind thinking about “Infinity” when i replayed the album for the first time. but as i edited this piece, i noticed the commonalities between the song titles. it makes sense that a song called “Night Time” precedes one called “Stars.”
11. “Stars”
this is a stellar closer as it concludes the album on an optimistic note—like “Shelter,” i could imagine this song in the soundtrack for a coming-of-age story (this actually applies to any song on this album). the lyrics explore how intimate a romantic connection can be when both parties acknowledge how much they’re willing to give; how far they’re willing to go.
“If you want me
Let me know
Where do you wanna go?”
solo work and subsequent releases
following xx, the band released two more albums: Coexist in 2012 and I See You in 2017. by the time their sophomore album came out, my affection for this sound had temporarily waned in pursuit of something trippier (insert neo-psychedelia and freak folk). however, i like the opener “Angels” a lot! i also enjoy that the subsequent records have continued the X motif on the album covers.
plus, each band member has released solo work, which i listened to ahead of this publication.
i hadn’t played Oliver Sim’s solo work until now because the cover for Hideous Bastard (2022) triggered my trypophobia. Jamie xx produced the moving autobiographical album, and the work heavily centers queerness and Sim’s experience of living with HIV. i wouldn’t say that i missed out by waiting to listen to Hideous Bastard, but rather that now was an optimal opportunity to overcome that initial visual discomfort.
in addition to producing for other artists, Jamie xx has a few solo efforts to his name:
We’re New Here (2011), a remix album of I’m New Here by poet and singer Gil Scott-Heron, which would be the revolutionary artist’s final release before his death that spring.
2015’s In Colour, with standout tracks like “Gosh,” “Loud Places,” “I Know There’s Gonna Be (Good Times),” and “Girl”; features include his xx bandmates, as well as Young Thug and Popcaan.
2024’s In Waves, with its all-star lineup of featured artists such as John Glacier, Panda Bear, Robyn, and The Avalanches.
it’s worth noting that the recurring visual motif for Jamie xx’s album covers is the bottom left fraction of an X.
Romy Madley Croft releases music under the mononym Romy. she debuted an upbeat dance record in 2023 titled Mid Air, which has an appearance from the beloved musician Beverly Glenn-Copeland.
back in March, the xx teased new music via Instagram with a recent image of the trio in the studio. whether this is your first time hearing of this band or you want to add their music back into your rotation, now is a prime time to get more familiar with their sound.
16 years isn’t necessarily a milestone anniversary, but i did learn that singer Romy Madley Croft celebrated her birthday this week (8/18). so in that way, this exploration aligns with my general practice of revisiting music for either an album’s anniversary or the artist’s birthday.
it might appear that i was emphasizing “ugh,” but i was actually pointing out how “thought daughter” d(evolved) from “thot daughter”—borrowing from African American English as many colloquialisms on the internet tend to do.
if you read my professional writing (such as work i’ve done for other publications, The Music Directory, or even emails), i default to the standard sentence case. it’s a subtle distinction between the writing persona of the mononymous creative writer Shanté (AKA Tay) and Shanté Honeycutt, the trained journalist. it’s not that tough to understand, yet folks often seem boggled by things that exist outside of binary thinking.
Loved it when released and even more today. Praying for a new album soon. Their solo work fills my playlists as well.
that midnight radio set took me back to so much of my formative music listening. tune-yards! st. vincent! yeah yeah yeahs! and, of course, the xx💗❌
-max