The XX

“The XX”. According to The Guardian, they are ‘four young, sullen-faced youths dressed in black’. I chose this band because I was drawn to their individual sound and sense of style, as well as the fact that they are relatively undiscovered which enabled me to create for them without previous influences. They formed in 2005 after meeting at the Elliott School, which is notable for nurturing musical talents such as Hot Chip and Four Tet.
The areas I wanted to convey through the album artwork were; the band’s musical structure and style, their influences, vocal style and personal style.
With regards to their musical style, they have been described as creating minimalist, deconstructed and unconventional music. Though they can be technically assessed as an indie band, their style is unique in the fact that their omnipresent minimalist style and wide range of influences ensures that their musical cannot be pigeonholed.
I wanted to reflect the consistency of their music through my artwork so I decided that the artwork should have a strict monochrome theme that encompassed not only the band’s musical style, but also that tied in with their personal style. I used images developed from a pinhole camera that created an eerie, mysterious and enigmatic feel.
The XX have an unusual mix of influences including hip-hop, indie and minimalist. This shows their interesting take on music and their open-mindedness about genre.
This gives me a lot to work with and a lot to inspire me when producing their artwork. When researching their influences, I will also be looking into the ‘look’ of the bands. Some of these will include Joy Division, New Order, Aaliyah, Sonic Youth, Young Marble Giants and many more.
The vocalists style is rich in depth and creates a nice variety to their songs. The lead female, Romy, has hints of Robyn and Bjork in her voice, this gives the band a type of European sound quality. The backing music has undertones and structure of classic individual music like Joy Division, and in some songs, Enya.
They have a 90s quality which reflects the bands nostalgia for the era in which they grew up and were most likely influenced by.
Their personal style is original, haircuts are edgy and unique, clothing is all black, ironic for such individual music. They seem keen to present a united and uniform look, like carbon copies.

This has to be my favourite song of theirs 'Islands'