Xiu Xiu

[Shew Shew]

One of my favourite bands and one of my favourite albums. The Air Force usually makes my top 10 album list everytime I'm drunk enough to get into the conversation about what my top 10 albums are.
Xiu Xiu can be considered Art-rock in the sense that they don't 'conform' to any structure/sound that would be consired the 'norm' of other genres

Jamie Stewarts soft vocals make this album for me, the lyrics while being mostly about love and death come off as beautiful, but they also merge well with the flow of the album. The main seller here though is the use of instrumentation. Ranging from 'beeps and boops' to keyboards, guitar and drums (and drum machines) this album mixes it all and manages to do it without it just coming off as plain noise and mess like some bands try to call 'art'.

[I won't rest until you take it]

The first time I heard Xiu Xiu I was 17 years old in avalanche in Edinburgh when the song I Luv The Valley came on. I heard this song and instantly I was in love. I asked the guy working who was the band was and he told me it was Xiu Xiu and pointed me in the direction of the album. I happily picked it up for a mere £6 and well, that was when my love affair with James Stewart and Xiu Xiu began. It was also my first real connection with Experimental Rock. I had Sonic Youth CDs and I really enjoyed them, but I hadn't taken them in for their serious artistic merit, I just liked them being loud. Xiu Xiu really introduced me into understanding experimental music and I've been hooked since.