The sophomore album is always the most interesting of an innovative artist’s career. It can go one of two ways: They continue to grow and build upon the sound they had already created and make something groundbreaking or they feel the pressure to recreate that sound and match the success of their first album. A lot of artists take the “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” route more often than not, sometimes without even knowing they’re doing it. The xx fell somewhere in between. They’re self-titled debut was innovative, critically acclaimed, and reached sales milestones even the band themselves probably didn’t deem possible at the time. They followed it up with the lukewarm Coexist. It was a record that saw young artists trying to live up to their first album with retread and imitation instead of growth and innovation. It’s been a little over three years since that release and the three members of the group have had time to grow since then. During that period, lead producer Jamie xx went on to release In Colour, his own solo album that was met with universal acclaim. It was clear that the group was aware of the criticism surrounding their sophomore album, and they decided to take some time apart before jumping back in and creating a third. Whether they could come together and create something that sounded as fresh and new as their debut was the question.
The group unveiled ‘On Hold’, the lead single to their third album, I See You, in November of last year. The song did little to help us understand the direction of the album. With its sample driven foundation and thumping bassline, it was more a direct extension of Jamie xx’s solo record from last year than what we imagined the third xx record would sound like. That is not an indictment on the song in any way, just the first impression that the lead single made. It sounded like I See You might be a Jamie xx album featuring vocalists. Album opener ‘Dangerous’ does little to break that assumption. It is the rare occasion on the album where it feels like lead vocalists Romy Madley Croft and Oliver Sim seem to be competing against Jamie xx’s backdrop as opposed to complementing it. That aside, ‘Dangerous’ is still the band stepping out of their comfort zone, which is more than can be said for their past album.
After the opener, the album finds a groove that doesn’t let up until the LP’s conclusion. ‘Say Something Loving’, the second single from I See You, sounds like the culmination of everything the band has been working towards since their debut in 2009. It finds each group members best attribute being showcased and working seamlessly to create a song that wouldn’t sound out of place on Top 40 radio. There’s a Jamie xx sample, beautiful Romy guitar riffs, gorgeous harmonies and infectious melodies. It almost sounds like The xx crossing over into the mainstream, but not at the expense of quality. Penultimate track, ‘I Dare You’, falls into this category as well. Outside of delivering one of their strongest hooks to date, the lyrical content here has matured and sounds like someone singing about love with perspective instead of singing about what they thought love should sound like. Lyrics such as “A rush of blood is not enough/I need my feelings set on fire” are perfect examples of singer Romy displaying how much more visual and mature the bands lyrics have become. On ‘Replica’, Oliver Sim captures growing old but not growing up as he sings “25 and you’re just like me/Is it in our nature to be stuck on repeat?/Another encore to an aftershow/Do I chase the night or does the night chase me?”. It is Oliver Sim’s one solo moment on the album and he shines bright with the opportunity.
Female vocalist, Romy, has similar moments on I See You where she the stage is all hers outside of some background vocals from Sim. The first is the devastating ‘Performance.’ She details the aftermath of heartbreak and the masks we all wear to give the illusion that everything is alright. She alludes to the fact that she is putting on the performance she thinks someone wants to see instead of the one that makes her happy. The song is absolutely her best vocal performance to date and maybe the best moment on the whole record. It is only rivaled by one of her other solo moments, the closer ‘Test Me’. The band has detailed that Romy wrote this song as a letter to the other members describing their time apart and singing feelings towards them that she wasn’t quite ready to say to them. Listeners can almost hear the pain in the lyrics as she sings “Just take it out on me/It’s easier than saying what you mean”. Oliver’s vocals can be heard very faintly in the background almost as if he’s fading away. It’s a subtle but beautiful compliment to the tracks already eerie atmosphere. After the short verse and chorus the remainder of the song is spent with a haunting backdrop from Jamie xx. It reinterprets part of the melody from his song ‘Gosh’ off his solo album and turns it into a haunting howl. It continues to build towards a climax that never quite arrives as the song and album come to an abrupt close. Test Me acts almost like a metaphor of a band that was on the verge of breaking up but then reconciled their differences.
If Coexist was The xx rehashing their old sound and taking a few steps back, then I See You is them regaining that ground and then some. In the past, my biggest criticism of The xx was that although they are a group, it was too often that one member took the spotlight and stole the song, for better or worse. Those moments are practically nonexistent on I See You. The time apart allowed young artists to grow up individually and then reunite organically to create something fantastic. It’s an album that is everything you already loved from The xx with even more that you didn’t know you loved from them yet. Every subsequent listen unveils a new element and however small it may seem, it’s beautiful when you hear it. They’re innovating again and doing so by letting each artist shine without the push and pull of the previous record. Gone are the days of inadvertently fighting each other for the spotlight, and instead they are letting one another flourish with their respective strengths. I See You is an album that is great because of the sum of its parts.
Repeatable: ‘Say Something Loving’, ‘Performance’, ‘I Dare You’, ‘Test Me’
Skippable: none
By Scott Evans
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