The Daily Spin, June 29
The xx | I See You
Welcome back to the Daily Spin, the series in which I review 365 albums during 2023.
Each album will be given a rating on a scale from 0 to 10. You can look at the entire set here. Additionally, you can check out a list of my favorite song from each album right here.
If you want to suggest an album, good news! You can do so right here!
Album: I See You (2017)
Artist: The xx
Link:
Remember what I said about the challenge of three-album runs when talking about alt-J the other day? Take that and apply it here, but in this case, I would argue that I See You is actually the strongest of the trilogy. Though xx has the higher highs with ‘intro’ and ‘Islands’, and Coexist punches heavy with the emotionally weighty dream-pop of ‘Sunset’ and ‘Angels’, it’s their third album that really pulls it all together into one beautifully cohesive listening experience.
Above the garage beats that Jamie Smith has forged a phenomenal career of his own working in, Romy Madley Croft and Oliver Sim trade devastating lyrics about love, loss, and the ups and downs of loving and being loved. Scenes play out as though you’re walking along a window-lined wall, glimpses of hurt and fear that Sim and Madley Croft convey so perfectly, even through vocals that are admittedly a little limited.
It’s a testament to the strength of this album that the songs that are arguably most classically “xx” in nature are what I would consider their weakest - and I think it’s because for the first time, the group really feels as though it’s pulling everyone in fulling, as though they’ve finally found that next gear, that step forward that they’ve been teetering on since they first hit the scene. They were on the cusp of greatness before, and it feels as though they’ve propelled themselves surely into that camp with I See You.
Under glittering samples, the sort of arpeggiating explosions that draw a world of sound around you only to draw you in, the xx have found themselves the center of a supernova - bound to brilliance in a world of color before returning to the insular center they began from, tightly packed with all the weight of the world.
Rating: 9.6/10
Best Tracks: Dangerous; Test Me; A Violent Noise; Replica
Worst Tracks: Performance