2012 In Preview: Xiu Xiu
Over the next few days we’ll be looking at what’s to come in the year ahead, and picking out some of the releases we’re most looking forward to hearing over the coming months.
Whatever you think of Xiu Xiu, you could never call them boring. Seeing Jamie Stewart’s carnival of self-loathing at The Harley in 2010 remains the most intense live experience I’ve ever witnessed, and I can always rely on his records to remind me of the soul-crushing futility of human existence and that happiness is but a fleeting illusion. Bearing this in mind it’s probably not appropriate to say I’m “looking forward” to the new Xiu Xiu record “Always”, but like drivers slowing down to stare at a car crash, morbid curiosity will draw me back into the miserable world of Xiu Xiu.
The first song released from the album, Hi, is actually pretty accessible as far as a Xiu Xiu song goes, although lyrically it’s business as usual, opening with the joyful couplet “If you are wasting your life, say hi / If you are alone tonight, say hi”. Elsewhere the album will feature songs with titles like Born to Suffer and I Luv Abortion, while Factory Girls is about “the sexual objectification and desperate existence of Chinese female migrant workers”. To put it simply, it looks like Xiu Xiu are carrying on as they always have - and who could ask for anything more than that.
THE DEETS
Album title: “Always”
Release Date: Feb. 28th (UK & Europe), March 6th (Worldwide)
