The xx - Coexist [CD]

The xx exist in a time and space of their own making. In 2009 the south London trio s 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, its hallmarks were restraint and ambiguity. In the age of the over-share, xx was pop with its privacy settings on max.

Three years later, Romy Madley Croft, Oliver Sim and Jamie Smith release 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.