Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 66
 XX, you owe Chris Isaak some money September 8, 2010
R. J. Adam
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Nice mood, good voices (both instrumental and human). Worthy Mercury prize winner but surely Chris Isaak deserves a share of the royalties for Infinity? ("I wanna fall in love" bares more than a passing resemblance).
 A total grower! September 8, 2010
Michael Doyle (England)
This is a real "grow on you" album. It gets further into my head every time I listen to it. I love to put my squeezebox on snooze at bedtime and drift off to this album . . .
Award-winning September 8, 2010
A. Thief (Westminster, London)
3 out of 6 found this review helpful
I'm over the age of 30 and don't really have the ability to find out about new and interesting music by myself. Thank goodness then that some skilled arbiters of musical taste were able to decide on my behalf that this was the best album of the last year. This allowed me the reassurance to go out and buy it and then claim to enjoy it.
To be honest, I'm not absolutely sure I do enjoy it: it's not got any tunes you're going to be whistling while doing the gardening. But I will definitely play it during my next dinner party and then when people ask who it is I shall nonchantly mention that it is The XX and when they inevitably ask who that is I shall smugly explain (having read up on them in the Guardian).
This tactic has worked in the past with other bands - Arcade Fire, Arctic Monkeys, Franz Ferdinand - and has allowed me to appear far cooler than I actually am (do people actually still use the word 'cool'?).
 Shoegazing at its worst September 8, 2010
Mr. T. Philipson (Oxford, Oxon United Kingdom)
6 out of 9 found this review helpful
We all know that the phrase 'next big thing' is something of a cliche, and hangs like a millstone around many an artists head. In the case of the 'XX' (bit pretentious in itself) this may well have been the case if there was any inherent musical core to their output. Yes it sounds 'atmospheric' (or ambient as the experts would have it), but it is also repetative and empty also. During the 90's there was so-called shoegazing - a sort of introspective yet melodic genre, which was much derided, and rightly so in many respects. However, every now and then a real gem would emerge from this morass which was both melodic and meaningful. The XX is none of these things - self-indulgence at its worst. Not that I blame the kids - just those who mislead them into thinking that their musical musings have any intrinsic merit. For those who laud this album I would suggest that they listen to 'Split' by the sadly gone but not forgotten Lush, which demonstrates that you can produce layered, moving introspective music without being either self-indulgent or, even worse, boring. If this is the zeitgeist then, as another cliche goes, I wish to reach for my metaphorical revolver and possibly shoot myself.
Not quite sure how this won the Mercury Prize? Ok, in fact, I'm flabbergasted! September 8, 2010
Mark B (London, UK)
5 out of 7 found this review helpful
I am truly, truly miffed.
Quite how The XX are Mercury Prize Winners is - well, I am lost for words.
Having made the mistake of buying this album before the awards were meted out, I find this all-too-long player: soporific, weak on melody, and where good songwriting and hooks live in absentia, put simply, this album is staggeringly average. And whoever dished out the awards, ought to take another long hard listen and what amounts to an album of nothingness.
If you are expecting an album replete with some of the best British songwriting, you may be solely disappointed. I have no agenda in saying this other than to put some perspective in what is distortion praise for an album who's "atmosphere" is as weak as wake.
Just my opinion, I may be wrong. I hope others find mellifluous joy where I, personally, found none.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 66
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