Track 6" "Islands" by The XX

Sex in the dark, drum machines and a Young Marble Giants-like aesthetic of less is more sums up this massively hyped debut album. With a tribute to R&B re-imagined as minimalist post-punk, the XX have self-produced an album worthy of pre or post coital playback. I just hope there's someone special in your life because this one deserved repeated listens. It somehow manages to lack the pretension or excess you'd expect from such a youthful group. Each track seems to have been calculated carefully to appeal both lyrically and as a mood. The XX have tapped into something beyond their years.

In the short between the albums release, cataclysmic explosion of blog coverage and their recent prepping for a Spring US tour (with former classmates Hot Chip), the group lost their keyboardist to exhaustion and will continue on as a threesome. One can only hope the shake up won't affect the emerging sound of a band that's earned its countless end-of-year nods.



While many have agreed about the album's status as one of this year's best, there's quite the argument going about the signature track. There's the commercially successful “Intro” as well as the tidy "Crystalised," but I have to side with fans of the album's cool cucumber love song featuring dueling vocals.


6.) "Islands" by The XX


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