Fresh off of a tour with Florence & The Machine, and a tour-memorializing remix of one of her Lungs cuts, the xx stopped in to Jools Holland’s BBC2 studio to perform the subdued and lockstep cool of “Islands,” one of many standouts from their debut-album-of-the-year contender xx. If they look baby-faced it’s because they actually are babies (the quartet are all 20), babies that preternaturally distilled a sultry, drum-machined minimalistic pop blend bands twice their age can’t approach.
xx is out via Young Turks/XL Recordings.
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the way this is shot is annoying
so i love their new album, and most of their remixes but this sounds absolutely disastrous.
You Stereogum commenters are the most negative bunch of ‘tards this side of Youtube.
I thought it was great, especially for a live TV performance.
Amazing album too, considering their age.
instrumentally, they sounded great, i wasn’t really feeling the vocals. kind of makes me miss hearing singing. but again, the instrumentals were awesome.
i thought this was incredible. i am very surprised to see negative comments on this.
Really? I thought this was shot amazingly well, better than how most of our North American performances are done. It’s usually done in such a boring manner. Great performance for a TV show and amazing album, regardless of age!
sorry. but this is of no substance. sounds like some confused kids practising. I can`t see what makes them special.
Wow, i was thinking it, and it looks like a lot of people agree with me here. I love Jools show, watched a ton of videos from it without issue, but The camera work on this one is distracting and odd. I do this kind of stuff profesionally (studio production, often with bands) and really wonder if it was someones first day, or if someone was sick, becuase it was not good.
As for xx, I love the album… this performance doesnt do much for me. maybe not a great live band???
Like the performance a lot. Didn’t mind most of the filming except for the times where a spotlight was pointed straight at the camera. Not good. Jools’ team does a good job so they’re allowed an occasional slip up. Always looks and sounds better than any American late-night performance.
She sounded like she had a soar throught, which was a shame considering i was trying to convice my mate how amazing they were
Uh, that was wicked…
I really really love this band. When they came to NYC in August I followed them around like a crazed groupie. (Yes – I do have a big crush on Oliver! He was really nice & took a pic with me and my friends). However, I think the singing on this video is not so hot.
Just my thoughts, love them nonetheless! Got tickets for their November show in NYC.