Regardless of the hype, vampire weekend were always class live
MP3: The XX-VCR
The XX are the latest Vampire Weekend. They have an average age of nineteen and it's currently hard to be objective about them, seeing as most critical opinion is refracted through a monster bubble of internet chatter. Let's try though.
Their sound is austere, melodic and synthy, with a girl/boy vocal trade off on most songs. So far, so ordinary. Yet, from start to finish, their debut album is crammed full of intriguing elliptical moments (both musically and lyrically) which call to mind the music of Young Marble Giants, and which contrast starkly to such overcrowded, WTF bonanzas as MGMT's debut.
After the tsunami subsides, people will come back to the XX to try and fill in the weird and compelling gaps in their songs. I just know it.
8/29/09
X Chromosomes
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These days, I'd consider myself a glass-half-full chap when it comes to internet hype. I used to be a complete bell-end about hyped bands. Due to a stinky cerebral twitch common to people who write about music, I'd dismiss albums, bands, and - in the case of simian mobile bloggy remixy shit - entire genres, before listening. Arrogant? Yep. Cuntish? You bet.
Vampire Weekend changed all that. I smugly avoided their album for ages for the sole reason that it was the number one searched album on hype machine. When I subsequently heard it and was blown away, I realised two things. 1: I was a spanner for being snobby about it because of the hype. 2: Some people would still continue to hate on a great album because it was hyped in the first place.
Regardless of the hype, vampire weekend were always class live
MP3: The XX-VCR
The XX are the latest Vampire Weekend. They have an average age of nineteen and it's currently hard to be objective about them, seeing as most critical opinion is refracted through a monster bubble of internet chatter. Let's try though.
Their sound is austere, melodic and synthy, with a girl/boy vocal trade off on most songs. So far, so ordinary. Yet, from start to finish, their debut album is crammed full of intriguing elliptical moments (both musically and lyrically) which call to mind the music of Young Marble Giants, and which contrast starkly to such overcrowded, WTF bonanzas as MGMT's debut.
After the tsunami subsides, people will come back to the XX to try and fill in the weird and compelling gaps in their songs. I just know it.
Regardless of the hype, vampire weekend were always class live
MP3: The XX-VCR
The XX are the latest Vampire Weekend. They have an average age of nineteen and it's currently hard to be objective about them, seeing as most critical opinion is refracted through a monster bubble of internet chatter. Let's try though.
Their sound is austere, melodic and synthy, with a girl/boy vocal trade off on most songs. So far, so ordinary. Yet, from start to finish, their debut album is crammed full of intriguing elliptical moments (both musically and lyrically) which call to mind the music of Young Marble Giants, and which contrast starkly to such overcrowded, WTF bonanzas as MGMT's debut.
After the tsunami subsides, people will come back to the XX to try and fill in the weird and compelling gaps in their songs. I just know it.
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19 comments:
Completely agree with the sentiment of this post. Had a friend who dismissed Vampire Weekend entirely WITHOUT listening to a plainly brilliant album! Then he listened to it. The XX album is very good, someone else mentioned Young Marble Giants to me by way of comparison. Must check 'em out. As for being dismissive in the face of hype? A little healthy curmudgeonly stand offishness can work. But with the sheer amount of great new music these days I think, as a strategy, its dead. Simply too much good stuff to write about. And I used to be one of hose "bell ends" with regard to new music!
I think it's a fairly dull record but I have to admire the discipline required to keep things that sparse and minimalist. Given that amount of space to play in I'd have been going nuts with the overdubs. I don't imagine that they're able to play it live with any degree of panache.
You already know my opinion of Vampire Weekend.
Barryb you won't regret checking out young marble giants. Colossal youth is a terrific record. It's the skeletal instrumentation and the female vocalist's detached singing on the XX that puts me most in mind of YMG.
Ian for real? Thought you were a member of the Vampire Weekend fanclub ;)
Indeed Ian - I've seen the XX live (at the Latitude festival) and I've NEVER seen a band with less charisma. They were so painfully shy, it seemed like they wanted the ground to swallow them. Lovely music, but live, the gaps and spaces threatened to consume everyone within a 200 yard radius. You could almost sense the crowd willing them to do well but it was awkward. Unease squared.
I'm not so sure about this record yet. Think it's a grower. Nothing has grabbed me instantly. Heart skipped a beat I like.
The XX are so last minute.
That said I did play Crystallised about 30 secs ago.
@hugger - like a ryanair flight? hahah.
@lolo, I think in a years time, a lot of this may have grown on you like moss hehe
Apparently, The XX are on smack in the middle of Sat afternoon in The Electric Arena at The Picnic next week. Surprised they've been scheduled for such a time. They'd have been much better served late in one of the smaller tents...
I'm such a slow burner with new records, considering all my favourite music is from more than 10 years ago :/
New Jim O'Rourke though will change all of that for me. Never been this excited about an album in yonks. You'll have to listen to it when I get it and blog it up!
wasn't aware that the XX were being hyped all that much. I remember Jim Carroll had them as his tune of the week, that's about it...
the Dirty Projectors are this year's Vampire Weekend for me, overcoming-the-hype wise.
Well I ain't gone on the oul' xx album but will certainly be spinning it a few more times to see if i am missing something.
Vampire Weekend I've never been too excited about but that's nowt to do with hype - it just doesn't grab me by the nuts.
And for good measure, I have found Bitte Orca a hard pill to swallow too but I'm willing to accept that some of these albums are potential growers....we shall see by the end-of-year lists.
All I care about now is the new Raekwon album.
It's not that I'm being dismissive about them without listening(vampire weekend), I'd just rather not listen to them.
Aidan - isn't that being dismissive though?
I'd like to think of it as indifference...
@barryb - yeah weird spot.
@gabba I dunno what it is about dirty projectors. I've given bitte orca a few generous listens and it is flying over my head.
@Adam and @Aidan 'yis pedants!
I, thankfully, missed the boat on the hype and fell head over for these guys (xx) before I could be tainted by my own similar hype-meter trip.
Bleh
AWWWWW FUCK dude That Vampire Weekend caption is too funny
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