Album Review: Always - Xiu Xiu

I've followed Xiu Xiu for a long time now and they still remain one of my favourite acts. While I do feel that they have settled into a slightly predictable format since Women As Lovers, their output is still of a high quality and stands enough apart from any current artists I can think of to maintain their position as a unique and consistently interesting entity. It seems arbitrary of me to review their work, simply put I fucking love Xiu Xiu, but for the sake of promoting their album and maybe helping them gain some new fans here are some slightly more comprehensive thoughts I have upon listening to their upcoming LP titled Always:

Akin to Fabulous Muscles Always mixes aggressive experiments in noise with quiet and ominous soundscapes and whispered vocals. Born To Suffer will probably go down as one of their best songs, Black Drum Machine is the most downbeat closer they've had since Ian Curtis Wishlist and I Love Abortion beats Support Our Troops OH! for most discomfort-inducing Xiu Xiu moment. Lead single Hi kicks things off with an anthem for dysfunction and from beginning to end there is not a single moment wasted across this album; Jamie Stewart packs so many ideas and sounds into every bar of music that you'll either be totally enthralled or immediately daunted.

If you like music that's challenging then you will probably love this, it's more ballsy and far less accessible than previous album Dear God I Hate Myself, but that's not to say that there aren't great melodies and songs here. Honeysuckle has one of the sweetest sounding male/vocal exchanges that Jamie's ever employed, and on The Oldness his voice rides atop a lush piano and synth arrangement that peaks beautifully.Always showcases Xiu Xiu as one of the most arresting and brave acts around, harkening strongly to their earlier work but exhibiting a continually evolving grasp of complex production and arrangement that keeps their sound fresh and relevant. Always is out March 6th. Check out lead single Hi on Soundcloud:

  Hi by Xiu Xiu

Dear God, I Hate Myself by Xiu Xiu (Album Review by Erol Sabadosh)

Xiu Xiu's latest outing is by far their most pop-influenced album, but while it may be more sonically palatable than previous releases the lyrical subject matter is typically dark and morbid, with songs about eating disorders, self-mutilation and serial killers making up the twelve tracks on offer. As per usual, lead singer Jamie Stewart imbues his work with a sense of pathos, mixing self-deprecating humour with elements of tragedy and horror. Stewart's aesthetic approach is perhaps more consistently maximalist here, displaying less dynamic and textural range, and certainly the album is a far cry from the more foreboding and quietly unsettling La Forêt and lacking the variety of career-peak Fabulous Muscles, but this lends the songs, and therefore the album as a whole, a confidant momentum that carries the listener along a brief but extremely dense half hour.

With Dear God Stewart seems less preoccupied with confrontational and jarring compositions, though there still remains trace elements of these qualities, instead the music is characterized by a more rousing and upbeat sound this time around. According to the press release one of the instruments used in the making of the album was a Nintendo DS, and one track even makes prominent use of a children's choir; it is details such as this that belie the bleak title and make the album fun to listen to. There are also moments of tenderness, such as in the lament of Hyunhye's Theme, about a law student working hard to please their parents, and on This Too Shall Pass Away (For Freddy) where consolation comes in the assurance that "at least you are not alone" in feeling pain and that it is, like all things, transient. The title track, an ode to self-loathing and dysfunctional behaviour as well as a plea for spiritual love, is a definite highlight. Stewart also manages to squeeze in an unexpected cover of Cumberland Gap, a 19th century Appalachian folk song. Dear God, I Hate Myself is an odd but assured juxtaposition of dark subject matter and dense yet melodious music that works brilliantly and makes for one of Xiu Xiu's most exciting releases to date.

The album is released on 23rd February through Kill All Rock Stars, preceded by the release of the title track as lead single on iTunes on January 19th.

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