Bleep

On this hugely anticipated second album, The xx dismiss all speculation of a Jamie xx-influenced and dancefloor oriented sound by pursuing their love affair with moody atmospherics. At times, the album engages with hints of house and shuffling garage tropes but the result is dark and spooky, rather than hands-in-the-air inducing. Using instrumentation that is economical to the extreme, the trio have crafted eleven intensely gripping tracks, once again proving that they are masters of the negative space.