Xiu Xiu - The Air Force
Jamie Stewart is a psychologist's wet dream. A tortured soul, who survives the day by translating his pain, via musical bars and verse. Each Xiu Xiu song invites the listener to experience Stewart's misery, and leave feeling a little better about his or her own existence. Long story short, this isn't music for a Friday night. I hope you enjoyed that little taste of surface conceptions surrounding Xiu Xiu. The gloom and doom (a la Harvey Pekar). Are all these notions correct? I suppose the answer is yes, but I refuse to believe it's that simple. There is no doubt that Xiu Xiu voices a lot of personal anguish, and despair; however, people often forget to mention the music's stunning composition.
There are two types of Xiu Xiu songs: the experimental pop ("I Luv The Valley OH," "Boy Soprano"), and the sparse hauntings ("Fast Car," La Forest). The Xiu Xiu albums that work are the ones that incorporate both aspects of Stewart. Fabulous Muscles really nailed this for me, and The Air Force exists on the same plane. One day I will give La Forest the time and patience it deserves, but for now I'm spinning The Air Force day and night. Like all great LPs, the power and beauty of the album expand upon each listen. I was driving today, making around my tenth pass through the album, when "The Fox and The Rabbit," a song I hadn't paid attention to, suddenly blew me away. There is an "Oh Shit" moment at 2'15 that I'm not sure how I missed prior. The point is this album ages like a fine wine, and I'm afraid people will miss out - if not patient.
The only truly disappointing song on the album is, closer, "Wig Master," which attempts to shock with its lyrics, but falls flat. Jamie has always written provocative and chilling lyrics that come from an honest place, and despite my single exception above, The Air Force is a continuation of this tradition.
A little trivia:
According to Wikipedia "The album's name was picked so that Google-generated ads would bring up advertisements paid for by the US Armed Forces and therefore waste the warmonger's money on Xiu Xiu fans who are intelligent and well versed in global politics, capitalism, and empire."
Some other reviews.
Tour Dates:
11/09 The Echo
[mp3] Xiu Xiu - The Fox and The Rabbit
[mp3] Xiu XIu - Boy Soprano
posted by BWH999 at 8:15 AM
2 Comments:
It's funny that you say that Xiu Xiu isn't music for a Friday night, because I saw them play at The Echo on a Friday night once and everyone was in the mood to dance or hop around and Jamie played only a few of his "hits" and went more experimental with them.
That first paragraph was meant as shortsided statements about Xiu Xiu
"I hope you enjoyed that little taste of surface conceptions surrounding Xiu Xiu. The gloom and doom (a la Harvey Pekar). Are all these notions correct? I suppose the answer is yes, but I refuse to believe it's that simple. There is no doubt that Xiu Xiu voices a lot of personal anguish, and despair; however, people often forget to mention the music's stunning composition."
I personally would enjoy Xiu Xiu on a Friday, but for a lot of people it's just too heavy. It makes me happy to know people were attentive and excited at the Echo show! Can't wait to see them in Nov.
Thanks for the comment.
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