As is patently clear to anyone who has half a brain and quarter of an ear to the ground, Putney’s finest heartbroken Chris Isaac/Burial mash-up tribute act The Xx are back, back, back with a new record, called “Coexist”. ‘Tis out on September the 10th, and already the Internet Hordes are out in force proclaiming that it sounds JUST LIKE THEIR LAST RECORD.
Well, of course it does, you pillocks. When you release a debut album, out of pretty much nowhere, which sounds pretty much unlike anything else out there, you’re going to have a problem when you release a second album, thanks to it, not unreasonably, sounding like your first record, because IT’S BY THE SAME BAND. I mean, no-one had a go at Oasis because “(What’s The Story) Morning Glory” sounded rather a lot like “Definitely Maybe”, did they? Well, ok, I did, but I didn’t have a blog then so just moaned to friends, family, colleagues, and the poor sods I was being employed by to do the music for, rather than the poor sods (eg you) reading this now.
Look, both Portished and Tindersticks – two bands whose sound was immediately striking and unique – went on to refine and deepen their sound pretty successfully for a couple more records before it all went wrong. Let’s give The Xx time to do the same.
Anyway, a new track, Chained. It sounds like something from their debut. What were you expecting, Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep? A salsa/Boredoms mashup? A selection of show tunes from 1920’s Belgrade?
MP3: Chained by The Xx
(Removed because The Xx – or their management – don’t seem to want to let people share music that they are already sharing themselves. Sheesh. It’s 2012. If you don’t want people to hear your music don’t post it on your website. Anyway, it’s Soundcloud from here on in, folks. Hope you enjoyed being able to hear a couple of taster tracks whilst you were on the Tube. Then again, maybe The Xx don’t understand that, being from….er….London. Arseholes.)
(Purchase link removed)
Loft And Lost 
gold account
/ August 20, 2012The work he did for the Verve’s early records, though, is much better, partly because the rapport he had with the band meant he could persuade them to go along with his grandiose, ridiculously time-consuming shoots.
WEBSHERIFF
/ August 20, 2012WEB SHERIFF®
Creative Protection™
Tel +44(0)208-323 8013
Fax +44(0)208 323 8080
websheriff@websheriff.com
http://www.websheriff.com
Hi Loft and Lost,
On behalf of Young Turks and The XX, we would kindly ask you not to post pirated copies of “Coexist” on your site (or any non-promo tracks from the artist’s forthcoming album – street date 10th September).
We do appreciate that you are fans of / are promoting The XX, but the label and artist would greatly appreciate your co-operation in removing your links to the pirate files in question.
Thank you for respecting the artist’s and label’s wishes and, if you / your readers want good quality, non-pirated, preview material, then “Angels” is available as a free download when you pre-order the album via http://www.thexx.info/coexist and the new video for “Chained” is now also available for streaming / embedding (only) at http://www.thexx.info/chained/ (or in Germany via http://www.dooloop.tv/#!video/3825053/the-xx-chained) … .. for further info on the new album, check-out The XX’s official web-site, as well as the label’s YouTube channel, Facebook and Twitter at http://www.youtube.com/youngturksrecords / http://www.facebook.com/youngturksrec / twitter.com/youngturksrec … .. and keep an eye on these official sources for details of further news, preview material, videos and on-line promotions.
The artist’s official streams of “Chained” are for hyper-linking and embedding (only) by fans and bloggers, so please reciprocate this goodwill gesture by not ripping and re-posting these files.
With Thanks & Regards,
WEB SHERIFF®
loftandlost
/ August 20, 2012At the time of writing, the MP3 of “Chained” was freely available. I’m more than happy to post an embed link (especially if it’s tagged correctly to appear in Hype Machine/Elbows) but this didn’t seem to be available. In any case, if you’re posting something on your website then someone’s always going to rip and post. If you want the backing of music blogs then make life easy for us; don’t treat us like crap and send DMCA notices etc. Those can get us shut down, you know. I do this for fun and a bit of love and quite frankly, this kind of thing makes me wonder why I bother. I’ve got nothing against you going out and shutting down those blogs posting whole albums; that’s dreadfully naughty, but posting what I honestly thought was a freely available MP3 isn’t exactly in the same ballpark, is it?
And I really do wonder why I bother when a band like The Xx – who, let’s not forget, rose to prominence off the back of huge interest from music blogs – behave in this way. Making a couple of tracks available freely, not as a “goodwill gesture”, will get you tons of free publicity. All this type of behaviour does is piss people off and make the likes of me very unhappy. Look, as far as the world is concerned, I’m small fry. Well, not even small fry, more like plankton, but I’m sure there’s a few people who’ve stumbled across The Xx’s music here and enjoyed it; and hopefully they’ve enjoyed what I’ve said about it and that’s made them even more interested. Now, I won’t ever post about The Xx again, won’t go to their shows, won’t buy their records. End of story.
Put it this way, if I’d know it was a pirate, I wouldn’t have posted. If hadn’t plastered it all over the shop, I might have thought “Ooh, maybe this is a pirate” and wouldn’t have posted. In any case, cheerio The Xx, it was fun whilst it lasted.
In any case, the WordPress Spam filter thought you were spam, which is a marvellous piece of irony.
loftandlost
/ August 20, 2012Now this is a much better bit of spam. Thanks, Kim, for your views on Richard Ashcroft, which I wasn’t even talking about. Good point though.