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For those of you who missed this release last year, you now have no excuse for saying you haven’t heard The xx. Winners of the 2010 Mercury Prize, which honors the best in British music, The xx are just the latest in a line of winners that includes Pulp, Franz Ferdinand and Arctic Monkeys.  Pretty good company, right?  Well, their debut, xx, deserves it. It’s a sexy, mellifluous ride through a mix of indie rock and soul that’s often sparse without sounding sterile. Here, beats pulse rather than throttle, and vocals remained hushed and restrained, especially while gripped in the agony of longing. It’s proof that a little understatement can go a long way.

Xx is available now on iTunes, or sign up to get yourself a free mp3, here.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 5th, 2010 at 3:26 pm. It is filed under cool music, lifestyle and tagged with Mercury Prize, The xx. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.