REVIEW: “Coexist” another hit for The xx

A strange thing happened right after I put the xx’s new album, “Coexist,” on my iPod. My headphones broke in such a way that, unless you tamper with the cord every couple of minutes, you can’t hear any vocals. Luckily for me, “Coexist” is an album that rides heavily on its stellar production, courtesy of xx member Jamie xx, whose recent solo work as remix artist, DJ and producer has made “Coexist” what it is: Jamie xx’s album.

Of course, this is still the xx: the vocal performances are, for many songs, rather breathtaking, if not in technique, then at least in emotive value. Lead single and album opener “Angels” comes to mind, with Romy Madley Croft’s slight, reverberating guitar setting a perfect tone for her drifting, dreamy vocals.

Another great example of the xx’s vocal gifts would be “Tides,” which is also basically the best song on the album. Croft and bassist/singer Oliver Sim sing a phenomenal duet for most of the song: Only once, at the very start of the song, do they break apart, the schism presenting an intense back-and-forth between the two with each singer finishing the other’s phrases and thoughts.

Though Croft and Sim are still amazing singers and musicians, they are still overshadowed by Jamie xx’s formidable production/drum machine skills. Even the amazing singing on “Tides” pales when Jamie’s beat comes to the fore of the song. The simple beat is accented by waves of what sounds to be treated hi-hats cresting on every fourth beat, giving each measure a surprisingly smooth texture.

And it’s not just “Tides” that shows how greatly Jamie’s career as a post-Dubstep producer has influenced the album. This becomes very clear on songs like “Missing,” with their intricate beats and carefully planned dynamics. The silence at about a minute reflects Jamie’s DJ work, where, according to an interview by Pitchfork Media, he has become quite an expert on utilizing unexpected silence to work a crowd.

Even the seemingly simple songs come across as magnificently polished. Songs like “Fiction” or “Sunset” that sound simple at first reveal hidden complexities.

Of course, it’s not just the beats and synthesizers that Jamie throws in that make it his album. The xx’s sound on both albums is meticulously engineered and, with Jamie now officially at the mixing board, “Coexist” shows us exactly how deliberate that sound has always been. The reverberation of each instrument, especially Croft’s guitar, extends to a perfect length and the tone, muted yet striking, is nothing less than perfect.

Suffice to say, “Coexist” makes “xx” sound not amateurish, just slightly imperfect. This is odd, considering the haphazard way that Jamie reportedly engineered “Coexist.” According to an article on Grantland.com, he used a mixing board put together from parts of other, unusable boards in a studio with doors left wide open to let sounds from the outside world into the songs.

However, despite the obvious amount of influence that Jamie xx’s solo career has had on the album, “Coexist” sounds almost just as much like the xx as a whole. As has been noted by both the band and Pitchfork Media, the second album exists in the same world as the first. But, where “xx” simply sounded like nighttime music, “Coexist” somehow exists in something darker than night itself. It is both busy and stripped down. Quieter, yet louder. It more than lives up to the promise of “xx.”