A story of love and coexistance told in The xx's new album

By Cathy Hu     9/26/12 7:00pm

Minimalism at its core, "Coexist" strips away the superfluous elements of standard electronic pop, exposing raw emotion through simplistic musicality. The long-awaited sophomore album of The xx continues the story of the British indie-pop band rather than beginning a new chapter.

The album flows like a series of waves, settling into a fluid rhythm from track to track. Moments of silence juxtaposed with bursts of soft energy exemplify the illustrious style of The xx as it whispers stories of ambiguous love and leaves listeners in an indefinable limbo between a dreamy thought and reality.

Each track on the album is aptly named with a single word, which read in succession create a story in and of themselves. "Coexist" tells the story of a relationship lost in uncertainty, of lovers in a stage of simply coexisting.

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"Angels" opens as female lead Romy Madley-Croft reveals a quiet yearning, creating an almost otherworldly sensation. The story continues as male lead Oliver Sim enters, reading like a dialogue between quarreled lovers in "Try" as the couple attempts to reconnect and reestablish their relationship. "Sunset" illustrates the pain and tension of the lovers as they reach a stage of estrangement until they reveal these feelings of heartbreak and loneliness in "Unfold." The album ends with a vulnerable and fragile declaration of love in "Our Song."

While the musical style of the band's sophomore album retains many familiar elements: sparsely layered electronic beats, synthesized countermelodies and sensual vocals, Coexist also introduces a few original elements.

The album opens with "Angels," inducing listeners into a sort of meditative trance. It features more instrumental percussion than the standard muffled thumps of The xx, adding to the rhythmic texture a guitar line that mirrors the style of Explosions in the Sky.

"Reunion" opens with vocals floating over murmuring instrumental lines and unconventional steel drum percussive features building into a pulsing beat. This is a common musical theme for The xx: creating form out of the unformulated. The transition into "Sunset" seamlessly continues the pulsating beat of "Reunion," a rhythmic pace calling for a subtle indie head bob. "Swept Away" opens like a lullaby and reveals The xx's first significant use of a piano and instrumental focus.

Despite the few subtle nuances, "Coexist" stays true to the style and content revealed in The xx's first album, "xx." If "xx" made a silent splash in the music industry, "Coexist" is simply the ripple effect of that initial impact. While it maintains the integrity of the band and its signature sound, "Coexist," though just as good an album as its predecessor, simply doesn't have the same shock factor. The xx was received as a first of its kind with its almost painful simplicity, stirring vocal duets and pure emotions. Coexist does not take many risks to stray away from such a well-calculated formula.

That said, the similarity to its predecessor does not diminish the dark beauty and musical art that Coexist offers. Each track builds tension as the listener waits for the static murmurs and silence to shift into a percussive hook. But what makes these songs mesmerizing is that they continue to build this tension but never really break the surface.

The line between the imagined and the real is blurred; a silent storm brews in the nebulous space between the two worlds. The soft, haunting vocals tell a story as if they too were on the verge of sleep and consciousness: without inhibition, without distraction, but simply with heart. The album feels like a dream, one in which you find yourself questioning where you are, where you are going and what it means to be there.

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