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September 30, 2009

The xx Bring Jools Holland Their "Islands"

thumbnail icon: The xx Bring Jools Holland Their "Islands"

Fresh off of a tour with Florence & The Machine, and a tour-memorializing remix of one of her Lungs cuts, the xx stopped in to Jools Holland's BBC2 studio to perform the subdued and lockstep cool of "Islands," one of many standouts from their debut-album-of-the-year contender xx. If they look baby-faced it's because they actually are babies (the quartet are all 20), babies that preternaturally distilled a sultry, drum-machined minimalistic pop blend bands twice their age can't approach.

xx is out via Rough Trade.

Posted at 5:03 PM by amrit in
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10 Comments

the way this is shot is annoying

Posted by: Louis Fabbrini at 09/30/09 5:53 PM  | Reply
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so i love their new album, and most of their remixes but this sounds absolutely disastrous.

Posted by: yo at 09/30/09 7:20 PM  | Reply
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You Stereogum commenters are the most negative bunch of 'tards this side of Youtube.

I thought it was great, especially for a live TV performance.
Amazing album too, considering their age.

Posted by: Ben at 09/30/09 10:08 PM  | Reply
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instrumentally, they sounded great, i wasn't really feeling the vocals. kind of makes me miss hearing singing. but again, the instrumentals were awesome.

Posted by: dennis at 09/30/09 11:54 PM  | Reply
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i thought this was incredible. i am very surprised to see negative comments on this.

Posted by: la la landon profile link at 09/30/09 11:57 PM  | Reply
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Really? I thought this was shot amazingly well, better than how most of our North American performances are done. It's usually done in such a boring manner. Great performance for a TV show and amazing album, regardless of age!

Posted by: ohthisis at 10/01/09 12:26 AM  | Reply
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sorry. but this is of no substance. sounds like some confused kids practising. I can`t see what makes them special.

Posted by: heini at 10/01/09 4:58 AM  | Reply
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Wow, i was thinking it, and it looks like a lot of people agree with me here. I love Jools show, watched a ton of videos from it without issue, but The camera work on this one is distracting and odd. I do this kind of stuff profesionally (studio production, often with bands) and really wonder if it was someones first day, or if someone was sick, becuase it was not good.

As for xx, I love the album... this performance doesnt do much for me. maybe not a great live band???

Posted by: Brian at 10/01/09 6:00 AM  | Reply
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Like the performance a lot. Didn't mind most of the filming except for the times where a spotlight was pointed straight at the camera. Not good. Jools' team does a good job so they're allowed an occasional slip up. Always looks and sounds better than any American late-night performance.

Posted by: Rob at 10/01/09 10:38 AM  | Reply
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She sounded like she had a soar throught, which was a shame considering i was trying to convice my mate how amazing they were

Posted by: alecogden profile link at 10/01/09 11:39 AM  | Reply
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