- xx · 2009
- xx · 2009
- xx · 2009
- xx · 2009
- I See You · 2016
- xx · 2009
- Fiction - EP · 2013
- Coexist · 2012
- xx · 2009
- I See You · 2017
- I See You · 2017
- Coexist · 2012
- xx · 2009
Essential Albums
- For such a delicate, understated record, The xx’s debut had a deep and indelible impact. The Londoners’ genre-swirling sound—softly, efficiently blending haunted indie pop with dubstep and R&B—felt genuinely fresh and daring back in 2009. Before long, though, the album’s heavy-lidded minimalism began to echo through pop, hip-hop and R&B. Rihanna sampled “Intro” on “Drunk on Love” in 2011, the same year that Drake recast Gil Scott-Heron’s Jamie xx-produced “I’ll Take Care of U” as “Take Care”. The much-duplicated intimacy and economy of xx were drawn from circumstance as much as design. The band–Jamie xx (born Smith), Romy Madley Croft, Oliver Sim and the since departed Baria Qureshi—were simply trying to write music that they could manage onstage. “People were like, ‘Why is it so simple and so minimal?’” Madley Croft tells Apple Music’s Matt Wilkinson. “They thought that maybe we were going for a real minimalist aesthetic. But we just wanted it to be exactly what was playable live, which was quite simple because we were still learning our instruments.” “Felt like a massive impostor,” adds Sim. “Because people were like, ‘Wow, it must have taken such restraint to have so much space in your music.’ And we went, ‘There’s space in our music?’” Without that space and hush, the vulnerability and closeness of Madley Croft and Sim’s duets might be lost. Listening to xx is like eavesdropping on a wee-hours conversation between the pair—which is remarkable given some of their early songwriting processes. “A lot of the songs were written through iChat, of just not wanting to be in the same room as one another,” says Sim. “It’s just like, share it, put in an iChat, as far away from eye contact as possible. Me and Romy didn’t have really loud voices. It didn’t make sense to make this huge sound that we couldn’t contend with.” As personal as these songs are, they found a huge connection as xx ascended to platinum status in the UK and a Mercury Prize win in 2010. “Our experience of meeting fans, it’s very rarely ‘What’s this song about?’ It’s ‘This song means this to me because of this,’” says Sim. “That’s one rule we did have in the beginning: just keep it as universal as possible. There was no time, there was no place. There was no he or she.”
Albums
- 2017
- 2017
- 2016
Artist Playlists
- Intimate, urgent dream pop inspired by the dead of night.
- Indie stars build a clear identity on disparate influences.
- Lean back and relax with some of their mellowest cuts.
Live Albums
Appears On
- Oliver premieres a "Fruit" remix and chats with Romy and Jamie.
- Romy goes back to back in the mix with I. JORDAN.
- Romy, Jamie, Oliver and fans celebrate 10 years of their 2nd LP.
- Romy, Jamie, and Oliver share songs and catch up in the studio.
- The artist and DJ champions big pop songs that unite a room.
- The producer and DJ celebrates euphoric summer nights.
More To See
About The xx
When The xx unveiled their breathy bedroom ballads in 2009, they sounded like no one else. Their silky blend of sultry trip-hop, wistful dream-pop and bass-driven dubstep stimulates in its restraint. “We weren’t overthinking it,” vocalist/guitarist Romy Madley Croft told Apple Music. “People were like, ‘Why is it so simple, and so minimal?’ They thought that maybe we were going for a really minimalist aesthetic, but we just wanted it to be exactly what was playable live.” The group—comprising schoolmates Romy Madley Croft, vocalist/bassist Oliver Sim, guitarist/keyboardist Baria Qureshi and producer Jamie Smith (aka Jamie xx)—were just out of school and still learning their instruments, after all. That simplistic approach ended up shaping The xx’s 2009 self-titled debut album—which earned them the Mercury Prize—and their entire sound since. Trimming down to a trio (Qureshi left in late 2009), the band have kept that understated appeal. Madley Croft and Sim’s hushed harmonies still sound like lovers sharing their deepest apprehensions on wispy melodies like “Angels”, as Jamie xx’s ever-evolving beats have inched them closer to the dance floor with hypnotic singles, “On Hold” and “I Dare You”. Meanwhile, the group’s airy, atmospheric ambiance has seeped into indie, pop and hip-hop, and even seduced the biggest stars on the planet, including Rihanna (who sampled “Intro”) and Drake (who would later re-envision Jamie xx’s Gil Scott-Heron remix of “I’ll Take Care of U”). Still, no one can replicate what The xx do best—stripping down intimacy to its absolute essentials: whispered sweet nothings, heart-throbbing beats and echoes of all the ineffable spaces in between.
- ORIGIN
- Wandsworth, London, England
- FORMED
- 2005
- GENRE
- Alternative