MELANCHOLIC POP ALLURE

The XX, four young, sullen-faced youths dressed in black, have that alluring band-as-a-gang aura about them. They spent their youth at south-west London's Elliott School (fellow alumni: Four Tet, Burial and Hot Chip) obsessively tinkering with instruments in the music room before signing a deal and self-producing their album in their record company's back office. Whomever their influences, though, the xx seems refreshingly detached from any recent trends in pop music, indie or mainstream. Their music is the musical meeting point between the smooth R‘n’B of band favourite Aaliyah, and the spiritual blues of Francophile sisters CocoRosie - mature, soulful and full of the bittersweet sadness of experience.