The XX - Say something loving

If something was very criticized from The XX's third album is that, at times, you can feel the work of Jamie XX taking much control, deriving from what they, as a trio have already achieved (being considered a cult band that is also very successful) in such a short time, like in the lead single On Hold, that being a quite notable track, would have made much more sense in Jamie's solo album In Color, rather than in an XX album.

Say Something Loving, the second single, achieves what the predecessor didn't, showing an evolution in the sound of the band, while remaining true to themselves and letting the three parts of the equation shine in the same measure. This one is undoubtedly a song by The XX, it has its imprint in every single part, the dark minimal electronic, the sparse guitars and the clever lyrics about young love (or the lack of it), but it also shows how much the band has evolved and how they are able to offer new things that are not just a repetition of their highly acclaimed debut, there are Jamie's samples, in this case from the 70's duo Alessi Brothers, but in a subtle way, just there to enhance the idea of how fragile and volatile is romance, that at times it's just a moment that slips away, not taking the control of the direction of the whole piece (like the sample in On Hold), and there's Romy Croft's guitar style, going slightly wilder, but still being her trademark sparse style, she managed to imprint density to every single touch of her guitar, even when they are delivered at a much faster pace.

The voice play between Croft and Sim is also on top, this verbal exchange is part of the uniqueness of the band, two young persons sharing their fragilities and complementing them in the special way of camaraderie that they share. None of them has a special depth or range, but it's the small inflections in their mostly flat interpretations the ones that show the humanity and the realness of their feelings, and they keep us surprising us with lyrics that strike hard, when Romy says "Here come my insecurities, I almost expect you to leave", we froze.

With this new material, it's clear that The XX has joined Arcade Fire and Arctic Monkeys as the bands from this generation that are going to be real legends in the future, because of how much they managed to influence music and for how much they had to offer in every single one of their albums.