Angels, The XX

Two years ago, The XX were a glimpse of hope on a decaying year... are they still so?

An alternative Christmas

For those of you who are sick and tired of the same repetitive, childish, boring Christmas songs, here's an attempt to give you music that still captures the so-called Christmas spirit but remains interesting. And when we say Christmas spirit, we have to bear in mind that the word "spirit" is polysemic and everyone is entitled to attach his/her own meaning to it.

So, without further delay:

                       Merry (alternative) Christmas!


The Raveonettes, Christmas in Cleveland. Hard to think in any less Christmassy part of the world.


Malcolm Middleton, We're all going to die


Death Cab for Cutie, The New Year


The XX, Last Christmas


Tom Waits, Innocent when you dream


Sufjan Stevens, Sister Winter


The Magnetic Fields, Everything is one Big Christmas Tree


Mogway, Christmas Song

The XX

And amidst the boring monotony of the post-post-modern society, of the hipsters entelechy, of thick-framed specs, skinny trousers and clonned haircuts that has transformed music into a neverending dull yawn, there are The XX. And, funny enough, they outgrow the rest by stretching to the limit what others have only dared to insinuate because they thought it was cool or trendy. The XX's melodies are slow, repetitive, for some incredibly boring and bland, but they are alive, they are real, they have been experienced.
The XX don't pretend to be victims, they don't attempt to be moderns, they do no fake to be what they are not. They simply are. And that's what makes them great.

That's why, whenever we listen to Crystallised, we stop doing whatever we were doing to pay the song our full attention. When we listen to VCR we travel back in time with them to a long forgotten place of our childhood, when we deepen into their latest work, Coexist, we dive into this sea of tranquility which is their first single, Angels. A tranquility that, nonetheless, forecasts a coming storm. But not a thunderstorm, full of noise and special effects, but an interior storm set to shake our core, whispering to us, reminding us that we are still alive, that music is still alive, that not everything is lost yet. That we still have The XX.