The xx: Coexist

     
          Young Turks // 2012
          Dropped by Robert Miller

Music from this album
The xx: “Angels”
The xx: “Chained”

Like a modern-day The Cure for hip, indie pundits, The xx’s 2009 debut album surprised and surpassed most people’s expectations beyond belief and seemingly manifested in thin air. Not even realizing that we wanted a Cure-esque comeback with a Burial-esque beat, xx curated an emotional resonance that was simultaneously unattainable and gravely personal. Garnering a number of year-end spots, including No. 1 in The Guardian and No. 2 in NME, The xx’s dual vocals of Romy Madley Croft and Oliver Sim, Jamie Smith (much better known as Jamie xx) and the—somehow—lesser known Baria Qureshi struck quickly and diligently with their debut. It’s been over three years now, and fans have long anticipated a follow-up, but one bated horror rested on everyones lips: “sophomore slump.” Most wondered if the moody, near-gothic teenagers would fall for the trappings of a highly anticipated follow-up, and now with Coexist fans are getting a good idea.

Coexist definitely isn’t a sophomore slump, but it’s not exactly a triumphant return, either. Stripping themselves of their already minimal sheen, The xx venture into even more nominally basic musical territory. Much like Sigur Rós’ return to ambient form this year with Valtari, Coexist is almost a test to see how few plucked strings, struck chords or distant synthesizer echoes can justify the definition of a song. The signature buttery smooth bass line is still present throughout this album, and so are Madley Croft and Sim’s reliable call-and-response vocals. Yet still, even most of the band’s already renowned elements tend to fizzle out rather than explode with subdued passion like they did before. “Tides” is one of the first songs that ditches the glum melancholy for a groovy funk bass line that will have you nodding your head and swaying along as you listen, rather than soothe you to sleep. But even their singles, such as “Angels,” are these short ambient drones that never seem to culminate into the same emotional candor that the band exemplified before. They sizzle, crack, squirm and eventually cut off short with little to no flourish.

Even Madley Croft’s mesmerizing croon can’t hold on to some of the lyrical content this time around. Where xx felt dangerous, mysterious and poetically concrete, Coexist feels more quaint and safe in its vaguely trivial talk of relationships. “They would be / As in love with you as I am,” she sings in a repetitive refrain on “Angels” before finishing with, “In love, love, love.” And on the eerie “Try,” Croft and Sim sing together, “You know the way I / Can’t resist you, I / Said to myself I’d try”; so, if someone asks you, “Can you show me the song about love and / or relationships?” well, let’s just say you’ve got options.

The ambience of Coexist isn’t without its drone-lovers’ glee. There’s still something to be said about the space that exists between each note that speaks more than all of the world’s vaguest lyrical content. On “Unfold,” as dreamy pianos eventually fade out and then a somewhat distant bass breaks in with a suddenness, it’s a shivering effect. “Swept Away” is one of the sweetest and most endearing tracks on the second half of this album, courting with true dream pop buzz.

One thing that’s changed with the band since their debut album is that Baria Qureshi left. Not only that, she left in a manner that had Croft describing it as a “divorce.” Qureshi seems to be the only one from the band who never made a name for herself, but considering the steep change from xx to Coexist, process of elimination would have most guessing that she contributed more to The xx’s chemistry and progress than we originally thought. Whether they’re feeling the loss of that fourth member, or it’s simply a change for the sake of change, something just doesn’t feel right on Coexist.

This is certainly an album that deserves return listens, though. The name that these Londoners made for themselves so suddenly and unassumingly in 2009 alone is what makes Coexist worthy of more than just one fleeting try. They took a pretty big gamble by not necessarily giving us xx: Part II, and whether or not it paid off is still up for interpretation.

I have always lived by the mantra that, sometimes, less is more; and apparently The xx think that way too. But in the case of Coexist, when “Our Song” rumbles along softly and carefully, stopping just before the end of the proper note, I simply find myself wanting more.

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Watch the wavering, psychedelic visual for the single “Chained” below: