-
9.0
5478
9.0 |
musicOMH
For a debut album it's brilliantly realised and contains not an inch of flab across its 11 songs. Debut album of the year? It's beyond doubt.
Read Review
-
9.0
5481
9.0 |
The Observer
Quietly, utterly electrifying.
Read Review
-
9.0
5483
9.0 |
Drowned In Sound
It could be because they’ve known each other for years, it could be luck that this combination of four people is somehow tuned to one another and can create something so clear, so fluent. It’s pointless speculating about it. It’s here and it’s almost perfect.
Read Review
-
9.0
5487
9.0 |
No Ripcord
A fantastically innovative album, and this band is exploring new territory. This nocturnal pop is impossibly unique, yet quiet and low-key at the same time. Maybe, though, its best quality is its transience—like the night, it’s beautiful for its duration, and then fades away
Read Review
-
8.7
5488
8.7 |
Pitchfork
It is so fully formed and thoughtful that it feels like three or four lesser, noisier records should have preceded it. The xx didn't need a gestation period, though xx is nuanced, quiet, and surprising enough that you might
Read Review
-
8.5
7323
8.5 |
The Line Of Best Fit
...the quartet’s subtlety of touch and exceptional restraint prevent a descent into out-and-out dirge, while not losing sight of their angst-inflected roots
Read Review
-
8.0
7336
8.0 |
State
...a long way short of the finished article live but in XX they have created a debut that is surely set to be both one of the year’s most anticipated and also its best
Read Review
-
8.0
5489
8.0 |
PopMatters
More than just one of the best debut albums of the year, it is one of the better albums of the year, period.
Read Review
-
8.0
5484
8.0 |
The Quietus
The album accomplishes a great deal with relatively few tools: the crystalline keyboards of Baria Qureshi; the Cooderish, Cure-ish, spare guitar of Romy Madley Croft; and the modal bass of Oliver Sim.
Read Review
-
8.0
5485
8.0 |
Evening Standard
There are 11 songs here, all of a piece in their unfussy melodies, serene progress, and a keen sense of spatial awareness when it comes to instrumentation.
Read Review
-
8.0
5486
8.0 |
The List
Warm and comforting, but somehow distant, xx unfolds into an understated beauty.
Read Review
-
8.0
5482
8.0 |
The Sunday Times
Conventional — and very near perfect — pop songs … A refreshing and remarkable debut.
Read Review
-
8.0
5479
8.0 |
Daily Telegraph
One of this year’s most beautiful and original debut albums
Read Review
-
8.0
5480
8.0 |
Independent on Sunday
Claustrophobic, aural wallpaper of a stylish kind
Read Review
-
8.0
5472
8.0 |
Observer Music Monthly
There is a lightness of touch at play that gives the XX a sophistication beyond their years. It probably means that their dream pop will become the ubiquitous dinner party album du jour. But really, their panicky atmospherics are too strange for tha
Read Review
-
8.0
5473
8.0 |
Uncut
Print edition only
-
8.0
5474
8.0 |
Mojo
Print edition only
-
8.0
5475
8.0 |
The Irish Times
You have to wonder just how a bunch of youngsters from south London could have had the time to experience the heartbreaks, aches and misfortunes which inform the lyrical weight of this drop-dead gorgeous dream-pop symphony
Read Review
-
8.0
5476
8.0 |
NME
The contrast between the reverberating spaces of their stripped-back sound and the almost insular intimacy of the soft, smoky duets is totally delicious. Towards the end, though, that deliciousness can start to become suffocatingly rich.
Read Review
-
8.0
5477
8.0 |
The Guardian
Will win many friends for its beautifully haunting, understated charms.
Read Review
-
7.0
7315
7.0 |
Rave Magazine
...the tone of the songs... doesn’t change much, and while this wall-to-wall breathy detachment can be a bit of a slog, there are enough hooks and melodies here to keep you coming back
Read Review
-
7.0
7382
7.0 |
Click Music
Exuding nonchalant, fatigued disinterest whilst clearly being the labour of many sleepless nights, the album is guaranteed to gain the band a mention amongst the best new artists of the year
Read Review
-
7.0
7392
7.0 |
The Fly
This young foursome literally sound like no-one else around
Read Review
-