By Marke B.
The xx
(Young Turks)
A sublime entanglement of negative space, lithesome riffs, and raw sentiment delivered by mush-mouthed lead vocalists Romy Madley Croft and Oliver Sims, this xx-cellent debut by the young rock quartet gleams the post-everything cube. Tracks “Basic Space,” “Islands,” and “Crystallized” could be the anthems of a less-virtual, more physical generation of emotional wonderers — even as the instrumentation and weird engagement-through-detachment mood hearkens back to the early New Order. (Justin Timberlake and Tracy and the Plastics are listed as influences).
The xx, “Basic Space”