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Xiu XiuAlways74 Based on 11 reviews 2012 Ranking: #92 / 227
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REVIEWS
What Xiu Xiu demonstrate throughout Always, is the way in which they can lay down so starkly how terrible life can be and how fucked up one can feel and create something amazing, angry, political, fierce and defiant out of all of it.
Always seems much more tempered than past efforts, extending the poppy sensibility of 2010’s Dear God, I Hate Myself.
Their ninth studio album, Always, is a riot; serving up its significant doses of ire, disgust and despair on a plate of pop-savvy, hook-laden electronica that somehow sounds both blithe and engaged, serious and ephemeral.
In total, though, Always might be both Xiu Xiu’s most approachable and most volatile collection.
The album is front-loaded with these inviting juxtapositions, where horrific lyrical imagery collides with rich instrumentation and melodies that scrape the underside of catchy.
Stewart turned the noise down, the melodies up, and made – arguably for the first time in his life – a true pop record.
Either we’ve heard this story too many times or it’s not quite up to the standards of our last hit.
DETAILS
RATINGS
| 90 | Drowned in Sound [src ] |
| 90 | Tiny Mix Tapes [src] |
| 83 | A.V. Club [src] |
| 80 | musicOMH [src] |
| 78 | Paste [src] |
| 73 | Pitchfork [src] |
| 70 | NME [src] |
| 70 | PopMatters [src] |
| 70 | Spin [src] |
| 70 | Under The Radar [src] |
| 45 | Beats Per Minute [src] |
- Hi
- Joey’s Song
- Beauty Towne
- Honey-Suckle
- I Luv Abortion
- The Oldness
- Chimney’s Afire (Mickensian Suicide)
- Gul Mudin
- Born to Suffer
- Factor Girl
- Smear the Quen
- Black Drum Machine
