Some day, J.S, when you tell me everything...
A few nights ago, in the kitchen i saw something happen.
The lights were out but i could still see, I was talking about how She's Hit (every little bit, even) and etc etc etc and I had my glasses off. I could still see though.
Jrkin' around like a bastard and: tBBLeep.
So I kind of stopped. Because that was it. tBBleep.
Approximately, of course. I'm not that good at spelling mouthed interpretations of sounds. Then it started up again. And I realized I was in familiar territory. Xiu Xiu, my love.
For years, Jamie Stewart has been making music the way he felt it, probably enjoying rasping his head against concrete walls all along the way. It's the goal of every artist to make something that sticks your head out of the water and creates original responses and many bands succees in this, but rarely has one felt so personal as Xiu Xiu have these last years. They have constantly worked towards composing music that works on a different level and remains at once obvious and relevant, while ever building on its idiosyncrasies to strengthen them until perfection.
And now the obviousness has come to terms.
On Fabulous Muscles, Xiu Xiu is Xiu Xiu and each part of it 10.000 times more than before:
where it took a little accomodation time for the Xiu Xiu enthusiast to appreciate a new album, there is an even more tingling sensation at first listen, when they were most criticized for their stripped down view of a song, they take it even further like on the final version of the title track brought to its absolutely crushing nudity, and as for their twiddling of noise, it is taken to the finish line with Support Our Troops, and what a finish line it is with its last minute, beautiful as a train wreck in a cathedral.
As I am sitting down again in the middle of the night - much more vulnerable this time - and the album plays again and again and again and again and again and again, i see once more this thing take place. This thing is the revelation of life, stripped down, beautiful and raging and itching and boring; and it seems the immediacy of Jamie Stewart's music is the revealing water. Xiu Xiu sticks a finger in and twists, always verging on pathos and the humourous turnaround of it to lay down a new game of understanding through exaggeration.
The involvement of the listener is necessary.
And we are finally rid of society's costumes.
But then again don't worry, I'm just kidding...
M.P
Links:
Buy it at amazon.com
xiuxiu.org
absolutely kosher
tomlab, european distribution
5 rue christine
