« Boy Least Likely To Cover "Faith" | Video | Main | Smog Love, Ranging from Big to Wild, plus Videos »
June 09, 2006
Force Entry
During the site's brief vacation, while we gladly enjoyed the long weekend and tried our best to remember stuff, we were sadly absent as the internet ruptured over the leak of Thom Yorke's solo album, the Eraser. While I defnitely put in my time as an obsessive Radio-head, I was actually more excited upon my return to blog land to see tracks from the Air Force, the fifth full length album in as many years from Xiu Xiu, had begun to see the light of day. I brace myself for waves of psychic revulsion from the audience as I write this, but XX frontman Jamie Stewart is making music that is more challenging than our sleepy eyed Radio-friend has in a while. That seems fairly undeniable to me. While Thom's own description of his project as "more beats and electronics" can loosely be applied to Xiu Xiu as well, Jamie's committment to unusual instrumentation, transgressive subject matter, and subverting traditional pop techniques with brutal noise consistently takes bigger chances. Thom's "Black Swan" refrain matter of factly tells us that things are "Fucked up." With a Xiu Xiu record, such a declaration is redundant, as the bleak sonics preclude any other state of being.
It's also totally obvious (and Thom's got it all over our boy on this count), that the main problem with Xiu Xiu's material is a lack of consistency. Every album so far has at least one (usually several) punishing moment of unstructured ear bleeding, or ugly to point of flinching lyrical turn. His "one a year" prolificacy could be the culprit for the spottiness, but it also assures that in this playlist age that the bloody pop gems that are also nestled in the muck can be frequently added to our own personal Stewart mega mix. As such, there is some catchy love for the haters readily apparent on the Air Force after only a few cursory listens, even if the rest of the album's gonna take some time (and maybe some judicious iPod editing) to fully embrace in the long run.
Xiu Xiu - "Save Me"
Challenging probably reads to some as a code word for unlistenable, but although that's an occasionally deserved epithet, it doesn't apply here. This track is pretty straightforward in its structure and catchiness, but possesses a odd quality due to dense construction. A nice, memorable guitar line starts us off, with percussion coming from both the drum beat and chopped up vox. Layered over that foundation, Jamie gives a fuzzy "do-do-do" sort of intro, before launching into his typically emotive delivery. As the song progresses various elements threaten to encroach on the melody. A creeping white noise here, meandering strings there. It continues to build to a multi-tracked chorus, sweeping in strength, but a bit unintelligible due to the overlapping vocals. To its credit, the song never loses it's propulsive thrust, despite the occasional distraction.
Xiu Xiu - "Hello From Eau Claire"
The live version of this song had been mislabeled on several sites (and subsequently by me, on a couple of mix CD's) as "Boy Soprano." The false title made the vocals by Stewart cohort Caralee McElroy seem like another instance of Xiu Xiu's predeliction for gender reversal. Stripped of that clue, the song lyrics become a bit more ambiguous. Sure, Caralee's vulnerable schoolgirl voice still wishes that you "could think of me as a man," but the following laundry list of independence including "I can pluck my own mustache" and "I can rip off my own tights" are purposefully confused. They are funny in the the typical grotesque Xiu Xiu manner, however, and when they finally build towards the ultimate "I can weep through my own midnights" it's a credit that the maudlin line doesn't read as woe is me pretension. The music here is fairly similar to its live precursor, providing a bouncing melody made mainly of minimal bell (xylophone?) strikes. What comes across better is the low end rhythym, more fully defined here although still supplementary. Also better established is the middle divergent section, abandoning the bells for busy video game music. The shift amps up the intensity (maybe you've reached this level's boss?), and adds some soft, ghostly voices. The digression is short, and Caralee returns over the sparse chiming to reiterate her achievements in buying her own cigarettes, and such. This time when she gets to the final weep, her delivery sounds smaller, more crumpled. Like the rest of the song's sunny demeanor was just a brave face, missing from her solitude.
The Air Force is released on the far off date of September 12th on 5rc records.
Vist Xiu Xiu's seldomly updated official website here.
Tags: Xiu Xiu, the Air Force, Thom Yorke
Posted by Jeff Klingman at June 9, 2006 12:51 PM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.merryswankster.com/movabletype/mt-tb.cgi/339
