The xx exist in a time and space of their own making. In 2009 the south London trios debut album XX, quietly made at night over the course of two years, bled steadily into the public consciousness to become shorthand for newly refined ideas of teenage desire and anxiety. Articulated with a maturity beyond their years, it's hallmarks were restraint and ambiguity. In the age of the over-share, XX was pop with it's privacy settings on max. Three years later, Romy Madley Croft, Oliver Sim and Jamie Smith are back with a new album, COEXIST, and a new perspective. Where xx lent in close to whisper in your ear, COEXIST gazes warmly in your eyes. Much has happened to lead to this point: most pertinently, they've grown up.
Releasing a debut album as instantly iconic as the xx's self-titled effort was could be intimidating, but the group's second album, Coexist, shows no signs of caving in under pressure. Between albums, the band's status -- and expectations for their follow-up -- grew as Jamie Smith worked with Gil Scott-Heron on the remix album We're New Here (which in turn spawned the Drake song "Take Care," which sampled the pair's "I'll Take Care of U"). Fortunately, as songs such as "Angels" and "Chained" showed, the group hadn't lost any of their deceptively simple, restrained-yet-mysterious allure while they became famous., Rovi
