A scalp-tingling, spellbinding third album from the London trio
Something or someone seems to have shaken The xx into life on their superb third album. Whereas on their first two outings, the London trio were the new faces of nervy, arty and brooding pensiveness, I See You thrums with a new clarity and even brightness. It is also alive to the endless possibilities of both music and life.
The band themselves say that Jamie xx’s solo foray, 2015’s Into Colour, has altered the course of their voyage into the heart of darkness and along with the recording locations of LA and Iceland, it means I See You bursts with surprises (including an artful Hall & Oates sample). It may even mean that dancing to The xx may now be a lot more than just listlessly drifting across the floor.
They announce their return (after four years) with bold - almost ceremonial - dance hall brass on Dangerous, an opening track featuring an industrial-strength bass line and skittering percussion. The animated and propulsive Say Something Loving captures the heady rush and blind fear of early romance while Hold On - complete with sample of Hall and Oates' I Can't Go For That - may be The xx's most commercial sounding track yet.
Clipped modernity is coupled with longing, haunted vocals. The intimate, conversational style of Romy Madley-Croft and Oliver Sim is utterly compelling here. On Brave for You, she ruminates on the deaths of her parents when she was a young child while on the vast, spectral sound of Test Me, Sim speaks honestly about his erstwhile battle with alcohol.
That trademark mystery and melancholia is still there and it makes The xx sound more human than ever. As Sim sings on Replica, “I chase the night or does the night chase me?”
Alan Corr @corralan
