The XX

This one has seen serious rotation on the car stereo ever since I bought it early last summer. The XX is a 4-piece freshman South-London band and this was their first CD (2009). Self-produced. Recorded in a garage, often at night. For me it's perfect pop music: easy to listen to, unpretentious but also honestly evocative, without gimmicks. The album has a very distintive atmosphere, start to finish. Which is why quite a few people find it dull. But it isn't. It is very intimate, languorous, teasingly sexy, disarmingly youthful. Almost all tracks revolve around a whispery dialogue between a nubile Romy Croft and the grainy voice of Oliver Sim, supported by a simple, distinctive beat (mid-tempo at most) and subtle synths. An Amazon reviewer spoke of 'a charmingly laconic ambience. There is a total absence of frenzy. In fact nothing much happens throughout in the nicest possible way.' I couldn't have said it better. A nice album, indeed.