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This being the eighth Xiu Xiu (pronounced "shoe shoe") album – the follow up to 2010’s Dear God, I Hate Myself – you wonder why Stewart and his rotating cast of pals aren’t better known. But one spin of I Luv Abortion instantly explains why. Staccato beats and keys, squealing electronics, an in-your-face vocal that occasionally breaks into a sweaty scream, and that song title – well, it’s patently not Morrissey or anyone searching for mainstream acceptance. Stewart may have named the album partly after his hip hop-loving brother’s emotional dependence on Erasure’s song Always during a time of crisis and bereavement, but Xiu Xiu music has little time for Erasure-style sweetness. Instead, the arrangements can mirror Stewart’s searing honesty with a level of hysteria that will be offputting, even unlistenable, to some.
Yet in generous swathes Always is also one of Stewart’s most accessible albums. Once you’re immersed, there’s a gripping, chilling fascination that’s hard to shake. The Oldness recalls one of Perfume Genius’ piano ballads, while Factory Girl is similarly intense and delicate; elsewhere, Smear the Queen and Joey’s Song could singlehandedly launch the genre ‘Disco Inferno’. The closing Black Drum Machine is Stewart firmly on the other side; slow and impressionistic, strings alternating between dreamy and scraping and at one point the frontman gabbling "I’m sorry, I’m sorry," over and over before a swarm of electronics, like he’s been figuratively stabbed in the back. It’s brilliantly unsettling.
If hysteria is not your bag, and nor a song about "an Afghani teenage boy killed murdered for sport by American soldiers" (Gul Mudin), there’s always Adele, say, or even Morrissey. For those comforted by musical blood, sweat and tears that work equally well in a goth discotheque or bedroom solitude, say hi.
--Martin Aston
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Customer Reviews
they deliver, more often than not, an extremely rewarding one. Jump right on in!
For a band with darkness on their side they are not without a sense of humour
('Chocolate Makes You Happy' from their 2010 release 'Dear God, I Hate Myself'
is a tasty case in point) but Jamie Stewart and company are more at home when
lurking about in the more unsettling corners of the musical world. 'Always' is
the band's eighth studio album and they show little sign of compromising their
singular vision just any time just yet. There are twelve new songs in the set
which run the course from thumping, incandescent electro-pop ('Beauty Towne' and
'Honey Suckle') to emotionally draining desolation (the marvellous 'The Oldness'
gives Soap & Skin's Anja Plaschg a run for her money in the tortured-soul stakes)
and back again. From the almost funky, tightly-structured, upbeat shenanigans of
blistering opening number 'Hi' to the eviscerating, string saturated, revelations
of final song 'Black Drum Machine' (think Scott Walker on an especially glum day!)
the recording is never less than a hugely imaginative sonic roller-coaster ride.
For love nor money don't let this fine album dip under your radar.
Highly Recommended.
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