Heave Media

The Abrasive Sounds of Xiu Xiu

Xiu Xiu gets more listener friendly on <i>Women As Lovers</i>

Xiu Xiu

Women As Lovers

Released on Nov 30, -0001

There is a category of music and musicians that try to push you away with their harsh and painful music, like a spurned lover, a derelict, the angry teenager you know you'll one day have that slams the door in your face every time you fight. Xiu Xiu fits this profile wholeheartedly. Xiu Xiu's new album, Women As Lovers, gives some of the most listener friendly music the band has put out to date. Many people I know wouldn't like Xiu Xiu and their style of music. It is noisy, abrasive and painful. It takes on subjects that people don't like to talk about. Some people want to just enjoy a good song, not look at the layers of artistry that goes into making more complex music.

The opening track, "I Do What I Want When I Want," gives some of the catchiest music Xiu Xiu has put out, with an almost electronic sounding combination of Xylophone, harpsichord, whistles and what I believe is a kazoo surging into bare vocals with entwined brass, giving the song a strange layer of sound that seems like it wouldn't work, yet comes together beautifully. The album then surges into "In Lust You Can Hear the Axe Fall," a very New Wave/Joy Division sounding start before lead singer/guitarist Jamie Stewart begins his screaming/whisper delivery of lyrics, which has bothered me before with Xiu Xiu, but holds just the right balance in this song of love and hate. The use of horns in "No Friend Oh!" is absolutely shimmering and amazing, The drum beat in "You Are Pregnant, You Are Dead" helps carry along and add a heavy layer to the song, and the closing track "Gayle Lynn" has a haunting yet beautiful quality in sound, making a sonically epic ending to the album (albeit a jarring and disturbing lyrical one).

Yet with fourteen tracks, Women As Lovers features some songs that just feel like they don't fit in. I don't want to point out any specific tracks, it maybe completely different for each listener on what tracks they'd keep and which ones to let go; but it just feels like the album could have been complete if a few songs had been left behind, possibly for the next release or even a b-side. Women As Lovers is the most mature and complete album that Xiu Xiu has released, making the jump from only being abrasive and jarring to finally being able to blend those harsh qualities and balance them to produce some amazing music. I still feel slightly put off, slightly jilted from Stewart's voice and what he sings about; but the music is finally so well put together. I can finally let Xiu Xiu and their music in - and accept them for the great artist that they are.

Posted by Lisa White on Feb 14, 2008 @ 12:00 am