Album Anniversaries: 'xx' Turns 10
In Album Anniversaries, writers honor their favorite aging albums and their subsequent legacies, revealing which projects have stood the test of time.
The perfectly simple yet simultaneously complex debut from British powerhouse The xx set the tone for music in the years to come with the group’s unique blend of indie dream pop, R&B, and electronic beats, while showing the world love can be expressed in any form.
Written by Emily Gruner
On August 14, 2009 British group The xx debuted their steamy self-titled album, xx, through the independent label Young Turks. By the next year, the opening track, Intro, was used in AT&T’s Winter Olympics commercial featuring Apolo Ohno and their debut garnered the group a Mercury Prize. Now, the trio has been sampled by Rihanna, nominated twice for Best British Group at the Brits, headlined Austin City Limits, and . . . their debut album is ten years old.
Image courtesy of The Verge
Although the band’s rise was viewed as quick due to their innovative blend of indie dream pop, rock, electronic, and R&B, the group was making music four years before the album’s release. Guitarist and female vocalist Romy Madley Croft and bassist Oliver Sim both realized at the age of 15 they were better off making music together than on their own. They initially uploaded songs and covers to Myspace, and when they began to play live shows, they recruited female guitarist Baria Qureshi, who would leave the band a year after the record’s release, and producer Jamie Smith, who also launched his own successful career under the moniker Jamie XX.
The newly-formed group started developing an album which, with the help of Smith’s production in a garage-turned-recording-studio attached to the offices of XL Recordings, became xx. Looking back on the album ten years later, the Brits simply changed the game. Their minimal style can be heard in the echoes of other artists, from the dwindling guitars in The Chainsmokers’ “Don’t Let Me Down” to the moodiness of Wet’s “Don’t Wanna Be Your Girl”. Their music is a constant feature on Spotify’s “Chill Out” and “Study” playlists, yet their debut album isn’t meant for background noise. It’s almost as if the music stops time, resigning your surroundings to stagnancy — which in a weird way, makes it timeless.
But their unique sound doesn’t discount the group’s lyrical work. At the center of the album is the intriguing interaction between vocalists Croft and Sim, who are both gay. This combination wasn’t a rarity in the late 2000’s, but it wasn’t common either, which makes Croft and Sim’s dynamic all the more intriguing. Croft says she and Sim are “singing past each other,” as they are both searching for human connection, just with people of a different gender. They’re slightly removed from one another, joining together only when they sing around simple universal truths, such as in “Heart Skipped a Beat,” they coo “sometimes, I still need you.” With the group’s minimal arrangements, the longing lyrics hover for the listener to sit within the comfortable environment they create. And in 2019, these universal truths found in The xx’s lyrics are just as understandable as they were in 2009, no matter the listener’s gender identity or sexual orientation.
Photo courtesy of The Observer.
Although this album was written by teenagers who were filled with uncertainty, they translated their feelings as if they were veterans of the industry. By using minimal elements from a variety of different genres coupled with lyrics that can speak to anyone’s soul, this debut album caught the attention of music fans all over the world, serving as reference for stars such as Frank Ocean, Beyoncé, and James Blake. But most importantly, this timeless album serves as a testament to the novelty of genre-bending while proving that love is truly universal.