The xx

xx

They combine sparse melodies, hushed vocal harmonies and haunting production to create one of this year’s most beautiful and original debut albums.

It's an album to play when you're wallowing in a comedown and slow-paced melancholy offers a strange comfort.

As overwrought as the lyrics are, the songs have an attractive, dreamy, atmospheric quality that helps the London band avoid embarrassing teen melancholy.

Listening to The xx’s debut album, it’s impossible not to be overcome by the sort of sublime sadness that feels like a rheumatoid ache in the heart area.

The album will win many friends for its beautifully haunting, understated charms.

Four pouty kids from South London, barely out of their teens, the xx see nothing wrong with playing Timbaland or Jam and Lewis-style R&B with an indie band's chops.

At its heart xx is a pop record, brimming with slow-burning melodies and occasional rousing choruses.

The band isn’t playing catch-up against a nonexistent reputation; they expect the record to speak for itself. And it certainly does. Every song is catchy and immediately enjoyable while not noisy.

It’s strange that such a traditional set-up (drums, bass, keys, guitars, voices) has resulted in one of 2009’s most unique debuts.

The real stand-out factor ... comes in the shape of the sublime vocal partnership between best buds Romy Madley Croft and Oliver Sim who sing up a sultry storm throughout these eleven hugely atmospheric offerings, complimenting each other beautifully and providing a real focal point. Dark and majestic.

While The xx have produced a refreshing, understated debut in a time of super-compressed, post-modern grabs at the attention of the pop consumer, and a record capable of transporting one to a dreamy state of mind, the record doesn’t necessarily have songs.