It has been a while since I've posted any music Monday entry (or much of anything on this site.) Much of this is the result of my usual monday day off becoming a regular monday day shift. Well, with another changing of my schedule, I'm sitting here during the day on Monday, listening to the group I am about to review and thinking to myself, "by golly, I should do the music mondays again....yep. here it is.
The XX - The XX
I accepted years ago that rock was dead. The only bands that seemed to do anything new were the veterans of the world. With each single by Panic at the Disco!, a part of me died. Nobody was doing anything new. Well, then I picked up this album at Target (thanks to a recommendation by Brant). The XX is a fantastic debut by a group that will be setting the tone for the rock music of the next few years. Rock seems to accepted that it has eaten itself. The XX is one of the many new groups leading the way in a "new" sound. Rock is softer, subtler, spacier now. This album shines with thoughtful songwriting, with a ear for pop, without being pop. The guitars fill in a few well place notes here and there. The rest of the sound is dominated by gentle electronic touches, with little snippets of R&B, hip-hop, 80's pop, and club music. All the songs float along gently, with much of the power coming from the trade off vocals of the male and female singers of the group.
The album starts strong with the instrumental "Intro" which was apparently used in some commercial I never saw. It continues off the tracks momentum until breaking down mid-album into the dreamy doldrums of post-post-rock. The album ends with three great pop songs. It stands as something different and rehashed at the same time. New ideas in rock don't exist, but this comes close to being something new.
1 comment:
Sitting here in Menomonie, WI listening to Pat Benatar, I'm glad you're attempting to bring me into the 21st century of music. Not sure of the effect, but I'm glad you're writing.
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