Review Summary: undeniably xiu xiu
Calling 'xiu xiu' strange is probably the biggest understatement ever. The bridge of "Sad Pony Guerrilla Girl" includes what sounds like someone scratching a chalkboard and it makes me cringe every time. ‘‘Support are troops (black angels OH!)'' is a spoken word song with basically shocking lyrics and the 2 stanzas of the song are separated by what can only be described as pure noise. But the thing with Xiu Xiu is that even with these frankly unlistenable moments, there is pure genius within the man called Jamie Stewart.
Dear god, i hate myself is Xiu Xiu's 7th album in 10 years, which is pretty impressive. You may have heard about the music video for the title-track. If you haven't seen it, it’s basically band member Angela seo inducing vomiting, over the course of a 3 minute video...yeah...
That proves that Xiu Xiu are not the easiest band too get into, but it also shows how brave Mr. Stewart is.
This shows through the band’s music.
From the title, and most of the lyrics, its safe too assume that this album is based around eating disorders or for the more obvious answer; self-hate. As a result this, as with every other one of Xiu Xiu's releases, is a contender for most depressing lyrics ever. The album starts with the cheery line '''Beat, beat, beat me to death, i said it''.
It’s strange for Xiu Xiu that the music in that song actually matches the somber lyrics. For the most part this album is full of electric noises courtesy of a nintendo ds, this makes nearly every song rather cheery in tone, musically. The best example of this is probably the title-track, and it’s one of my favrioute ‘Xiu Xiu' tracks. It’s the kind of song you bob up and down too. And all the ds noises are really cool!
I personally think that Jamie Stewart is a great singer. He annunciates every consonant which i think is brilliant. This is most evident on 'gray death' and 'chocolate makes you happy' (''incredibly dumb, incredibly ugly''). His voice might take getting used too but overall i think his great.
I think this album is great. It could match 'Fabulous muscles' as Xiu Xiu's most accessible album. But it’s still undeniably Xiu Xiu. There’s only one Xiu Xiu, no one else sounds like Xiu Xiu and that’s a fact.
Btw Xiu Xiu if you are reading this i expect another 7 albums in the next 10 years ok? great, thanks
Recommended songs:
Gray death
Chocolate makes you happy
Dear god i hate myself
Secret motel
