Coming down with the best of them.
After they brought the world into their sparse yet sensual world on 2009’s XX, this trio gave themselves a lot to live up to on their follow-up release. This record fits amongst the sophomore albums that aim to further hone the strengths of the prior work, rather than diverge and seek new stylings. This goes pretty well for the London group, as their focus allows for their individual songwriting and compositional skills to shine. Very much a night time album, it retains much of the great sensuality of the first album and grounds a lot of the figurative language into scenes more personal than before. The band will be the first to tell you that the songs on this disc draw a great deal of influence from dance music, which is apparent in the sexy vocal accompaniments, thumped out (yet distilled from their club-style 2-step and four-on-the-floor) beats, and steel drum sounds. While initially not quite as scintillating as the group’s debut release, Coexist keeps growing on me with each listen that I involve myself in, and I believe that in time it will win out as the better of the first two xx albums.
Think: “Post-Burial pop”, captivatingly minimalist indie-pop sexy R&B comedown melodies
REC: 1, 4, 6, 8, 10, 11
FCC: Cleeeean
Label: Young Turks
Add Date: September 18, 2012
alex applegate reviewed this album on Sept. 17, 2012
