xx

3/5 nice album, but ultimately not for me

Don't think I've ever heard of these guys, but first song is recognizable and I like it, so this could be fun! It was okay, but nothing special. 3/5.

Memories, Flow festival

Quiet and easy music. Kinda rides the same wave for the whole album, making it devoid of interesting dynamics. Hard to stay engaged when it does so little to engage. Really it's only until the end that I find it picks up a bit and does more. For what it's worth though, the reverb-filled dream pop is a nice listen. I just wish it did more.

Not my usual taste but I enjoyed listening to this. The first track was worth 4* easily, loved it but overall a good 3***

Bit meh.

I always said 'I like the xx' but I suspected that maybe this was because it was trendy, really I didn't really listen to them much. Now I realize that I actually do like the xx! I really do!

Was gab es eigentlich an ikonischer Musik nach diesem Album? Aus irgendwelchen WM-Songs fällt mir gerade nichts ein. Auf Albumlänge ist mir das aber schon damals nicht tragfähig erschienen, und meine Traurigkeit hat sich zu diesem Zeitpunkt nicht mehr so artikuliert, wie die es hier tun.

the first song is a vibe - "intro." it's kind of music i would just prefer to have on in the background, but it is fun.

Solid album, these guys were gonna be huge and then dipped off. 3.75

Better than I expected. Good for a rainy day

Good album. Minimal beats and vocals that are really clean.

had some highlights little boring

3

Unsure, seems a bit like it passed me by.

Intro: mood music. Good for video Guitar Centric / Breathy MaleFemale duo 80s / Looper positive - reminds me of John Hughs vibe Everything kinda sounds similar the longer you listen...

not bad. i liked intro. funny how i like the first songs off the albums.

Need to be in the mood for The xx but they are damn lovely group.

It's just not my taste of music. There is very nice vocals and I rather enjoy the tubular guitar sounds. The whole album is a little slow and sad feeling which doesn't necessarily appeal to me but I'm sure there are people who enjoy this album a great deal.

This album has grown on me over time.

Dreamy. All the songs kind of sound the same.

Voices!

tava no clima certo pra ouvir isso hj

Good album. A bit repetitive. Band has good sound.

Yeah, pretty good if not a bit samey.

I never got all the hype about this, thought it might make sense this time. Nope, still boring, they even sound bored of their own songs

Great vibe, really liked it, was ready for it to end tho

The woman sounds better than the man. Quite chilled background songs

3,5

Decent effort. Would make a great backdrop to a social gathering. Will definitely require a few more listens

I liked it more than I expected to.

liked it enough to bookmark it and will check out more of their work. sent to a friend and he is already a big fan.

It was fine - several good songs on the record, but it is so slow and minimal, which just isn't my jam. Nothing inherently wrong, just didn't stick with me much.

Interesting album with strong atmosphere, but its fairly repetitive and dosent really have any diversity in the types of songs.

God, I kept seeing the album cover everywhere back in the day but somehow it is my first time listening to it. For the first 4 or 5 songs I was actually quite enjoying it and thought they had something interesting going on. The longer it went on though the more it seemed like they ran out of ideas. Towards the end the whole vibe just became deeply boring, which is a shame 2/5

Sorry guys I do not understand the hype even a little bit, my bad folks but I am bored shitless

nö

I now understand why "Intro" is considered to be the best song of the album because damn, the voices sound incredibly monotone and passionless, to the point it sounds like the singers didn't want to sing at all. I'll said that I kind of get what they tried to do: give the album a sad tone by sounding like they were incredibly depressed and out of energy while recording, but come on, it doesn't mean they had to play these super rudimentary melodies over and over again. At least the instrumentation is decent. The guitar and bass sound incredibly ethereal, thanks to the spacious production and the mellow indie melodies, which give the record that cold sensation that the voices were trying to achieve. However, regardless of the instruments being great in comparison, they don't get save from being a bit bland. There are some decent guitar lines here and there, like "Intro" or "Crystalized", but overall they don't do anything that memorable. So overall, quite the pale album that tries to be very mournful but has some very flat performances. As a side note, to anyone reading this, you should listen to the cover Gorillaz did of "Crystalized", which is infinitely more emotional than anything from this album, with Damon Albarn voice sounding unbelievably fragile.

Forgettable 2010s cool-kid indie

What a total snoozefest

This was aggressively okay. I didn't hate it, but I wouldn't willingly listen to this again. It was just sort of boring.

Suits background music tbh. Borrrrrrring.

This started off ok but ended up a bit boring.

Despite knowing the lyrics and it holding such a special spot in my heart when it came out, now it sounds all like one big sleepy song…

I truly cannot find anything all that special about the XX, their music sounds to me like it was created to be in advertisements for resorts you see at airports or maybe like sigma edits on youtube.

Didn’t love it but see the appeal I guess

First couple of tracks are decent, but then it sort of trails off. I've only listened to the whole thing once but I'd say the second half is very forgettable. Maybe it's okay as chill background music. I liked this review: "Man we sure did like boring albums in the early 2010s".

already listened to it mid not memorable at all

Музыка хорошая, но вместе с вокалом это очень скучно

Hey, whatever happened to these guys? I remember this coming out and everyone being really excited but I haven't heard a lot from them recently. I still recognise Intro, a track apparently custom-made to be a TV bedding track or youth-oriented documentary intro. Putting it positively, this is very chill, relaxed and minimal. (I see Wikipedia notes their "intimate, unembellished quality".) On the other hand, you could say that it is probably too much so and there is not enough going on in these songs. I still think that I don't really like this, but I do appreciate that this sounds different to anything else I have heard from this list.

Hvala na tutorijalu, ne bih nikad skontao kako se extractuje WinRAR sam

I actually didn't dislike this album 2.5

Soulful vocals and clear talent, but lacking any real emotional depth

I'm not one to turn away a slow and moody album, but everything about this album is so subdued. Nothing stands out and the songs blend together, becoming repetitive. It's just kinda boring.

Booooooring

Whhhhy the mumbling?? In theory this could be so good

I had never heard of this band. Found this to be really uninspiring

I asked a coworker about this album. Cause she recognized the cover. She told me it's great, it's moody and creates an atmosphere. Didn't say what kind of atmosphere. She also is scared to call people or answer the phone. I wish I was joking about that part. Personally I found it to be boring. It's moody, but the kind of mood that feels like being at a middle school dance where the boys are on one side, the girls are on the other and NO ONE is looking at each other. Everyone is staring at their feet or everywhere but another person. It's like someone tried to make a depression album and settled on quiet instead.

I don't know, the album was just overall very meh. It was quite chill, but nothing really exciting happened, and it's just a bunch of Xs here and there - the band, the album, the album artwork... I can see it having a proper fanbase but not really something that I would actively listen to, apart from now when it was alright leaving in the background.

Slow and repetitive. Unimaginative background music. 2/5

Other than the first song it really isn’t that interesting 2.5

Haven't had a contemporary pop album in a while so this was a kinda nice change of pace but really forgettable. I'm writing this review several days after listening to it and I'm not motivated enough to listen to it again. Favorite(s): Fantasy Least: VCR 1.5/5

Honestly pretty annoying at times. Mostly just boring. Some of the laziest vocal performances I've ever heard. Indie pop production that is at times reminiscent of strfkr (based). But that's about all it's got going for it. W: crystalised L: Infinity, VCR, stars 1.5/5

In a nutshell, I'd describe this album as a story of teens falling in love, falling out of love, and figuring out all the emotions which go along with that whole process. I'm not feeling anything really special here. I can absolutely understand differences in taste profiles. But I would say that this offers nothing new, nothing revolutionary. I'm not sure it really belongs on a list of 1000+ albums you must hear. On the actual music, I would say that I didn't especially enjoy this. The male vocalist's voice sounds extremely unenthusiastic. He sounds like he doesn't want to be here, A feeling which rubs off on the listener. The album as a whole is a snoozefest. Extremely quiet, extremely unambitious. It doesn't seem to have any particuarly deep story. It started out kinda average, and it was all downhill from there. Rating: I don't like it at all, but it hasn't made my life actively worse. So we're in the 2 star area.

Boring, don’t want to listen again

Intro starts this one out so so strong, and it feels like it fades out quickly after that. I absolutely love Intro and I went into this album thinking I’d be getting 40 more minutes of that. Perhaps that was on me. Shelter is another stand out for me, but I was hoping for a little more energy or at least advanced things happening instrumentally and production wise. Nothing wrong with a low key album, but I would’ve appreciated a bit more from a couple of the songs. The vocals also felt pretty weak. You can tell they rely heavily on the guitarist and the beats to make the hits work, and the vocalists just can’t match that. Basic Space in particular felt like a bad remix of some Edward sharp and the mag zeroes music. The reverb guitar was the only redeemable part of that song. Favorites: Intro and Shelter

There's a few songs here and there that are quite enjoyable under the right mood and circumstances, but others sort of just sound like a popified version of triphop that just doesn't work for me personally.

Not at all familiar with this one (band OR album), this list has trained me to raise my hackles raised as soon as I see the words "English Indie Pop." That calmed a bit upon pressing play, as the vibe here is super chill, and a few tracks in I would even describe it as Spartan. Ambient and minimalist, occasionally melodic, and generally snooze-worthy, the album doesn't leave much of a taste in mouth when done, and is generally inoffensive but unmemorable. It's a 2.5/5 that I don't care to round up or revisit.

Boring out of context of 2009.

summer eletrohits 4/10

It was an album

Never listened. Expectations: Low - Verdict: Alright - Obviously I am familiar with the intro as it has been used in countless videos and TV segments over the years. It sounds good but it very much just an intro. I find VCR quite boring. Crystalised is marginally better but not by a lot. The dual lead vocals definitely give the album something a bit different but it can’t save it from blandness for me. Fantasy is a bit more interesting and Basic Space sounds far less generic, at least until the chorus. Overall there is nothing particularly wrong with this other than the fact that I don’t fee any affinity with it.

Can't deny The xx is unique. Their debut is full of sad, soft songs with a lot of emotion. Leaves the listener with a relatively empty feeling. I only know the band from the song "On Hold" shared on a sibs Spotify list way back. I do like that song but this album was a tad bit slow and lacking. The duo ushered in the whispery singing style that I don't care for and has blown up since with Billie the Eyelash. I give them some credit but not making my playlist with much of their stuff...1.59 stars.

2.3 Theres some catchy stuff in there but very minimalistic and repetitive to the point that I was getting frustrated at the end.

Meh.

I still don't like their voices together

A little low key

Inoffensive dross. I'm sure there's some merit to this stuff but I really don't have the time to dig it out.

Perfectly fine but kinda background music. The two sound like they're on qualuudes or whatever. It reminds me of when I checked out CHVRCHES because everyone liked them.

meh

Charming-ish pop

wasnt for me back in 2009, isnt for me now. downtempo apple adverts. some instrumentals sound alright (Fantasy, etc.), but they lose me again once they start singing

On paper I should really like this album. It did absolutely nothing for me. The intro was decent, but it only lead to disappointment

Begynner bra, men den intime minimalismen fungerer ikke utover på plata. Søvndyssende kjedelig. Dårlige tekster også.

er ingen ting

Was this the dawn of chill indie?? The oversaturation of the genre might be to blame, but to my 2026 ears this sounds like a whole buncha nothin' Standouts: Crystalised • Heart Skipped a Beat • Basic Space

One good Song eveybody knows - apart from that pretty boring.

Occasionally captivating, sometimes bad, but primarily boring. Their later output is far more dynamic and gripping. That said, this is a decent study in minimalism and stretching one specific guitar sound as far as it’ll possibly go.

VCR Crystalised

Low-key ass je catch pas le hype

I don't really like the guy's vocals on this album and the songs border on boring. 4/10

it was bad.

i've tried to get through this record i think three times before? and never actually been able to sit through it completely without getting bored out of my mind by like the 4th track. now tbf this was a long time ago and my taste has changed a lot since them, but this definitely gave me pretty low expectations going into this. and honestly? i guess it wasn't as awful as i thought it would be (i didn't outright hate it or fall asleep listening, though i came close), but it definitely wasn't memorable; the only parts of it that stood out to me and stuck with me at all were the iconic "intro" and the bassline in "fantasy", while the rest all just blended together. it pretty quickly got both boring and a little annoying, though i guess it can make pretty good background noise if i have nothing better to put on. instead of taking time to talk about why i don't think this should be on the list, i'll just say a few names of albums that try to do similar things to this but much more successfully: turn on the bright lights, hurry up we're dreaming, carrie & lowell, in colour (which is by a side project by a member of this band! it even has a song, "loud places", which is just like the songs on this album if they were interesting!), overgrown, untrue. (also, why is this the first indie record i get? couldn't i have gotten something actually good instead?) in short: 2/5 album, very boring, has no right to be here over other stuff that does the same thing much better

Can’t for the life of me understand why these jokers have more than one album on this list. There are some fun groves, but the vocals sound like they’re asleep at the mic. Like they didn’t even want to be singing their own lyrics, which I get because their lyrics are fucking dull. This shit sucks.

This was a bit more interesting than the one from the other day. Still doesn't really get my juices flowing.

The album overall has this kind of uniqueness and simplicity in the instrumental but sometimes the vocals tend to lack a bit on certain songs. Overall it lacks of risks and feels a bit dull

Альбом слишком попсовый, но Intro я где-то слышал!

it's ok, but not something i would want to listen to again

fine

*Sigh* More bland 2000s indie rock? Are we serious? As expected, there is absolutely nothing even remotely interesting about this album. It's just basic modern pop with whispery vocals and basic beats. The lyrics are as basic as everything else on this album. So, yeah, this shit is not good. It's not anywhere near worthy of being on the list, so why is it here? I've asked this far too many times, and I'll ask it far too many more if this damn list keeps throwing random boring bullshit at me! Just give me good albums! This album is ranked #2 of 8 albums for 2009. Other 2009 albums rated by me: It's Blitz!(1/8)-4 Veckatimest(3/8)-2

xx keeps teasing you with it's stellar atmosphere, lovely production and clearly solid performances, but that's never enough to hide the fact this band can't write an actual hook into these tracks, most of which are at least 3 minutes long and yet still feel like they get cut off before they can actually develop into something. The only geniunely catchy moment in this is in the goddamn intro track, and even that one ends before you can get attached to it. It's honestly just sad, like watching a kid with talent deciding to give up too early into something.

kinda felt like 'that's it?' after it was over.

It was ok. Kinda slow

It’s minimalist but I was expecting some mood changes. Didn’t really grab me at any point and repetitive.

This came out in my early teenage years so I feel that I am disposed to like this one. I wanted more energy, the primary emotion from this album is malaise. I expected to love it but felt like it was pretty middle of the road. I really liked Intro and Fantasy

boring

is oké.. gwn echt heel saai maar niet per se slecht

Am I deaf or what??????? I tried turning up my volume and the instruments are very loud and clear but I still barely hear what they’re saying. Why are they whispering and singing in cursive?????? Cool instrumentals but like I can’t hear the singing it’s so confusing!!!

Ok

Hilarious meme song

Quite dull. There's a moment near the back end where there's some oomph but it's quickly replaced with the quiet sound from the rest of the album. I didn't hear much emotion in their voices either. For emotional, ambient music, I prefer someone like Blanco White.

This is some hipster BS...

This shit was so boring

A quiet and moody album that was one of the pioneers for the tumblr days of taking pictures of colorful oils spills on the asphalt and black converse. Besides the intro, I couldnt find myself getting into it.

How boring was this? The shy vocal style is interesting I guess but not something I liked. I had high hopes the first two songs but they were quickly dashed. I see how it’s influential, sounds like all the twee/stomp clap pop that was on the radio when I was in middle school.

Opens with an 'oh this is them?!' classic - the catchy guitar line and idm drum machine creating a spacey ambiguous atmosphere, instantly recognizable but doomed to play on loop behind annoying short form videos forever. The rest adds a pair of singers trading whispered lines to the sparse reverby synth+guitars indie dance pop arrangement, dark and moody, light tension/release dynamics, easy listening - pleasant enough but pretty dull. The guitar leads are a huge Modest Mouse rip off: sad slow melodic messing with major 3rds/4ths and reverb. It's the epitome of post-hipster millenial retail music.

Not bad, but I couldn't sustain my interest. The male/female vocals got annoying after a while.

Intro led me to believe that this album is more than what is actually is: boring indie pop.

The way that the two singers pronounce words annoys the crap out of me. They don't pronounce their Ts or Ds enough and they end up coming out as this annoying "ts" or "dz" sound every time in words like "daytime," which they say more like "dzaytsime." Having to hear that for the length of an album is incredibly distracting. Outside of the way they pronounce words with Ds in them, their singing isn't much to write home about either. It feels like the kind of music I'd hear in a Burlington. Anyways, I appreciate them throwing Fantasy right in the middle of the album. Only took like 20 minutes to get something vaguely interesting. That song brings me to the other guy in the group, Jamie xx. Not to dismiss the secondary guitarist, but I actually knew who this guy was before this album because of his solo stuff. Somehow I never made the connection between that and this band, despite the name. His work as a producer here is mediocre, but I feel like it's more him being held back by the other people in the band than something in his control. It's all boring and low-energy to the point of making me feel tired by the end of it. In a word, yawn.

It’s pretty bland. Only a few bits are enjoyable but most of it sounds the same

I used to want to like this record. It has components that I like. Seventeen Seconds The Cure guitars, simple beats and understated vocals but I find it pretty dull.

6/10 banger album that aged a little bit badly Will i add this album to my library: already is

Dull. Inoffensive but incredibly dull

Second album from The xx on the list and it’s another two star. Much like I See You there’s nothing necessarily bad about this. I just don’t find it interesting. With no more albums on the list I would pretty much guarantee I’ll never listen to them again.

Could be good but I don’t think the music ever gets going. There’s a lot of intro through the album

Intro is great but then it’s kinda like why am I still listening… wish there were no vocals

Beats, fine. Vocals, bad

Not a huge fan of the make lead singers voice. Music is ok.

Sin interés, pero no es terrible.

Incredibly 2012 Tumblr feeling. Really shockingly bland. Felt like it belonged in a short Hulu series about young millennials.

Intro is really good - I had heard this before but had no idea who played it (and never heard of XX before). The rest seems almost like easy listening. Background music for a coffeeshop. Interesting sound, but not very daring.

imagining this being important to jack and lena

Good background music but doesn't stand out to me. I feel like it would be in the Winx tv show.

Rating: 5/10 It's mostly just boring to me. I like pop music that's ambient, atmospheric, dreamy, minimalist, all those things, but the xx specifically doesn't really do it for me. I find it pretty unmemorable and I really don't like their vocals. It's well produced, it's a vibe, especially that damn intro, and it's not explicitly offensive so it gets a middling score

I remember this. OK. Cant remember what it sounded like already.

Feel like I should have enjoyed this more than I did, but not for me

OK

feel like i'm bout to fall asleep to a vague, diluted version of my brother's indie mixtapes from '95.

The vocalists both suck and while there is nothing truly objectionable about the song arrangement and production, there doesn't seem to be anything inspired or inspiring here either. A fairly tedious, boring album. Personally, I was way more blown away by Imogen Heap's 2009 ELLIPSE than this.

Super forgettable. It wasn’t the worst, but I forgot I was listening to music for half of it.

Seems like there's probably a much more interesting album in here somewhere. But honestly I just spent most of it wishing I was listening to Interpol or Slow Club.

This album was like a terrible handjob. Track 1 - Intro promised interest, arousal, perhaps even brilliance. What followed was 35 minutes of musical edging, slow strokes of melodramatic, yet simultaneously entirely emotionless dirge. It's going nowhere, you want it to stop, but out of respect for the other party you stay quiet, allowing your mind to wander to anything but the matter at hand. After 25 minutes the quest for climax intensifies, but the wolf is far from the door. It is only as the final track - Stars comes to a blissful end that anything close to a climax is reached. It's over. Sweet, orgasmic silence.

sigma podcast intro, gotta respect that

Generic mediocrity

Meh. Nothing special.

Yes I’d like to order a scoop of vanilla ice cream on a slice of white bread with a marshmallow on top.

favs: intro heart skipped a beat shelter infinity night time rating 2.3/5

Car commercial music.

A lot of vocals over a simple guitar track. Not really my thing.

mid, wydaję mi się, że to kompletnie nie mój gust, ale może za którymś razem moja opinia się zmieni, żadna z piosenek nie przyciągnęła mojej uwagi 2,5/5, zdziwiło mnie to bo gatunek wydawał się bardzo mój

This wasn’t egregiously bad but for some reason I kinda hated it. It was just so boring and bland and underwhelming.

Kind of boring. From the UK.

forgettable for me. I've heard the song 'intro' before but that's the only one that left somewhat of an impression.

Quiet; didn't really care for this one much

not rlly my style but would love to listen to more folk sruff like this

This one is difficult for me. It's not that it's outright terrible as much as that it's just boring. It's like boring Phantogram, and Phantogram isn't super interesting for me for the most part anyway. Somehow, XX is a bit more boring than Phantogram. It's like listening to a couple of hipsters record a boring jam session with their guitar and their Casio keyboard and sing over that, but even they sound bored and disinterested with what they're doing. I dunno, man, this one kinda sucks. 4.5/10

I hadn’t heard the album before, and perhaps I was expecting something different. Something a bit louder. Noisier. No, the album isn’t loud. It’s more like quiet, minimalist indie pop. The call it dream pop. But the album is a bit monotonous. No, very monotonous. Individual tracks hardly stand out, and not much sticks in the mind. It’s not a bad album, but it just doesn’t work for me. If I want to listen to that sort of music, I’ll listen to the quiet songs by Velvet Underground. Perhaps I’m simply too old for dream pop.

Sounded like music for a car advert. Started ok but by the end was rather boring

everything sounded the same

The first tracked showed such promise, but then on the second they began to sing and that promise quickly vanished. Things then got more tedious as each track passed, until the end when I felt like a coma was imminent. The instrumentation would be nicely relaxing on its own, but with the droning vocals my brain just wants to turn to jelly.

I wanted to love it but it is boring

redelijk

I am still looking for what makes this album special... so far, I haven't found anything. It is neither horrific nor a captivating, impressive record. It just is something, mediocre and not very detailed. After listening for the first half of the halbum, I was a bit suprised when "Basic Space" featured drums that were remarkable for the first time on the album, at least it was the first time I actually noticed it. I guess you can put it on as background music, but for me, it isn't anything more. 2/5

Dull and dated

The dual vocals don't match well. The guitars are repetitive. l'm all for minimalist pop that's not crazy overproduced but this is dull.

Цікаво) Інді, таке собі(

How to make an xx song: drums, guitar, and some mellow sleepy vocals

Intro was amazing.... and then completely meh

It's ok!!! The music was a lil..... slow and soft for me. ALso the intro song has been used in so many generic youtube videos its hard to not hear it as watchmojo music

Quiet and atmospheric, but generally too slow for my tastes. Probably a 2.5. I remember when this album was all the rage, but despite my love for 2010s indie music I also could t get that into it then.

Sounds like the kind of music a committee consisting of middle-aged men in salmon pink acrylic jumpers would come up with when asked to produce an album of "chilled indie". The Postal Service cover Young Marble Giants (two infinitely more brilliant bands who should have been on this list!).

Boring. Why did I "need" to listen to this before I died? Amateur instrumentalists and tuneless singing

I'm sure I've heard the intro track on TV over the years, it might have been on something like MasterChef. As for the rest of the album, I'm convinced that Robert Dimery gave up after the first edition of the book and just started plumping for albums which had made some random, ostentatious indie YouTuber's year-end lists as how the fuck is this something you need to hear before you die? It's vapid, corporate, air-conditioned nothingness. About as exciting as receiving a tax bill in the post.

Pretty much was what artists were gonna sound like in that scene for the next few years but it’s not like it’s particularly special

The only half-decent track on the album is the intro track... which should tell you how dull this album is. It definitely carried the scene forward, but the amount of ambience doesn't do it any favours.

repetitive

It sounds as though they’re as bored by their music as I am.

it has a place but on the dull end of the spectrum

Intro and Crystallised and that's about it.

Another perfectly fine album that is completely forgettable.

I am not a fan of this genre, so this missed the mark for me.

Mid

This was pretty cool. I didn't love it, but if I heard it some more that could change. i like the sound.

goated intro, el resto no esta mal pero nothing exciting

pulga de bunda

Helt okej, vissa trevliga att lyssna på andra inte. Vissa var lite tråkiga, andra inte. Tyckte sången var lite jobbig att lyssna på ibland 🫣 Tyckte också att introt var bättre än många av låtarna 🫣 Islands och fantasy var najs 4,5/10

It was nice to have on in the background while I’m working, other than that this Album left no lasting impression on me, other than recognising the opening track as it’s been used in countless British TV dramas. 2.5/5 - boring

I feel like there's a lot of potential here but it's lacking that something extra, which is probably energy. The atmospheric sound is interesting but at times it feels like they played a wrong note or didn't hold one for long enough. At the end of the day, it's fine I guess.

Good bass lines and beats. Songs are a little too slow. "Intro" is the best of the record.

oh wow the song that plays in every annoying instagram reel is on here

While I have nothing against dreamy trip-hop — and I would be fine with any of these individual songs in the right spot on a playlist — this kind of droning, simple, unadorned, repetitive album does nothing for me.

A lot of these types of music on this list. Slow paced pop/rock indie shit. Alternative that is somehow boring and even worse than mainstream. I tried, i really did, but I cannot for the life of me like any of it.

Intro had me feeling that something cool was gonna happen but it was just quite mid

this is a top 1001 album? someone explain?

This is fine I guess. I liked Heart Skipped A Beat. It does drag on for me because it's extremely samey and while I can appreciate that in some bands for this it's just kind of a drag. It's not terrible or anything but pretty boring.

I knew what this would sound like as soon as I saw the artist's name in all lowercase. I wasn't wrong.

Very mellow and atmospheric

This isn’t bad, it’s just painfully dull.

Just a bit dull, too minimalistic, just not my taste. Crystalised was my song of the album and fav first listen

Album 56 Top 3 favorites off the album: VCR, Night Time, Stars I think I need to borrow a copy of this book because I truly do not understand why some of these albums are on here. Case in point: this one. How is this an album I need to hear before I die? Please, someone, explain it. Something about minimalism and ambience and and space and silence. I get it. I'm a musician. I promise. It is not a bad album. It's just not one I think I needed to hear before I die. Like if I had 1089 days left to live and I listened to one album every single day, this is one that would make me go, "really? I just spent 38 minutes of the last 1089 days of my life listening to this?" Maybe if I had an extra 38 minutes to spare, I'd put it on in the background, but damn. I genuinely try not to compare albums to one another, but here we go: at least it isn't Bob fucking Dylan or Coldplay. Also, if I wanted something with this vibe, I'd listen to Cigarettes After Sex instead. That is all.

boring

Definitively influential but only in terms of the basic sound of rock. Very solid songwriting overall, but too simplistic and hushed for lasting impact. Fantasy is probably my favourite track.

5/10

There's so little here to even critique. It's not unpleasant, and they nail the ethereal, quiet vulnerable vibe quite well, but this is like a serious version of Cattelan's Comedian

Melodies are fine, but it's mellow and on the whole a lot of aesthetics I didn't like. Nice work, but only 2 for me.

Atmospheric and pleasant-sounding indie music heavy on the delay and electronic rhythms. Kind of a laid back post punk vibe to it. All the songs on this album sound approximately the same. I can pick out their influences here and there, but it never transcends any of them. It’s the sort of thing that’s bland enough to have a broad appeal, which I guess is what landed it here. Not bad, but I assume that I’m going to forget what they sound like five minutes after the album is over.

Hard listen, very boring, should not be in this list. I think its telling that their most streamed song on spotify is the one in which they do not sing.

Completely faded into the background. Nothing stood out to me at all. 24 hours later, doing this review, I have zero memories of any of the songs.

I'm so sorry but I cannot do either of their voices.

I listened to this a couple of times and it just didn't stick. Didn't care for the dude's voice.

its so late 2000´s i cant omg. look, i like indie pop, i cant stand this album currently, i think i liked it back in the 2010s, right now? i cant

Overall pretty slow and boring? I see the atmospheric influences that really impacted the indie rock/folk scene of the 2010's but overall it's fairly simplistic and basic. Definitely an album I'd put on to fall asleep to.

unfortunately have to agree about it all being a bit dull, and the cursive singing got pretty insufferable real fast

Just no I was super into cutting edge pop when I was a young teen, but I think I really started to stop caring about it around in the mid 2010s when those stupid whisper vocals combined with minimal backing tracks took off (think Taylor Swift’s Blank Space, Beach House, Chainsmokers etc), and it sounds like this is might be patient zero for that epidemic. It’s just such a boring sound. It makes the vocals feel less important even if the lyrics come from the heart and there’s literally nothing else interesting going on musically. I get where the appeal for minimalist music like this comes from but it just feels like such a waste of time. It sounds pretty inoffensive and the album’s over pretty quick, so I can’t give it that dreaded 1 star, but I’m pretty certain I’ll never listen to this one again

Oh yes I'll take a same instrumentation for every song please Oh, and no identifiable melodies on the side

Honestly, the only reason I'm giving this album 2 stars instead of 1 is because it is very non offensive and is fine to just play in the background. I am really unsure of how I feel about this album. When I first started listening to it I found that it was quite boring and monotonous. But after some time I could imagine listening to it on a long drive, It's athmospheric and more about the vibes I think. Definitley not like the usual stuff I listen to. Intro was probably the best one, I also liked Infinity. The instrumentals on the album really shine throughout. Maybe I'll enjoy it more after listening to it a couple of times. However, I feel it is extremely lifeless and has no edge or anything interesting to capture my attention. Did I need to hear this before I die? Probably not

I thought this is not too bad listening to the Intro track, however it gets progressively more boring and lazy-sounding. Not too impressed by yet another stupid fucking indie offering on this list. 2 stars

Feels like I listened to the same song ten times. Enjoyed Angus and Julia stone vibes a bit though

Album #1,034 I know not a thing about this before listening. I was pretty bored listening to this. The singers sounded bored as well, especially the male singer. The music was kind of sparse but effect heavy. Not for me.

What a snoozefest. It’s truly telling how boring an album is if the best tracks are the intro and the interlude. The production is admittedly on point, but the sparse instrumentation and vapid subject matter leave this devoid of any emotion. Some interesting moments peak out during Shelter and Basic Space, as well as the intro and Fantasy which I already mentioned, but they’re too few and far between. I also hate this dude’s voice. It’s the worst of the late 2000s hipster style. I avoid using that descriptor because it’s usually so reductive, but in this case that’s the truth. Could be why I enjoyed Shelter more than the others (because he shut the fuck up). With the XX headlining Kilby Block Party, I was initially glad this popped up so I could give it a critical listen. I’ve at least confirmed that I can go home early that day.

I mean.... its not bad. I can see why the instrumental track 'Intro' has almost as many plays on streaming sites at the rest of the songs on this album combined, its the best song here. I listened more than once trying to figure out why this is so critically acclaimed. The answer lies within the Billboard Hot 100 songs of 2009. Here is your top 5: Boom Boom Pow - The Black Eyed Peas, Poker Face - Lady Gaga, Just Dance - Lady Gaga, I Gotta Feeling - The Black Eyed Peas and Love Story - Taylor Swift. Trust me when I say it doesn't get much better than that for the remaining 95 songs. UGH, what a horrible year to have ears. That being said I can see why critics praised this. In comparison to the rest of the years charts its pretty darn good and doesn't sound like it was produced by the exact same production team as everything else getting play that year. Let me know if in 25 years this is still an album you must hear before you die. Its not. 3 because 2.75 isn't an option.

Still as boring.

I forgot the songs before they even finished

nothing special

Альбом слишком попсовый, но Intro я где-то слышал!

Better than the other one on the list (music much better suited for 2009 than 2017), but it’s crazy to have two albums by the xx on here. You can see that’s crazy right

Pretty dull, might suit me better in a different mood.

The xx was a phenomenon of the 2010s. Two albums of them are on this list and I think this one is not as good as the other. The two singers sing at each other, not to each other. They feel disconnected and especially the male vocals feel like they trying too hard to be an outcast character full of teenage angst. Good music which give the proper backbone for this kind of choices with some dubious choices of certain percussion that sits all the way with a clingy sound on the right channel. I thought my fuckin speaker broke. No, The xx can do better than this. But there are also better bands out there.

Started off cool but then nothing else happens.

‘Intro’ made me immensely nostalgic, but then I remembered how annoying I find the vocalists and the rest of the album was a drag to listen to

Gosh this takes me back to my 20s. Generally very bland apart from infinity which I still like.

Had really high hopes for this, intro track is iconic but….that’s about it. Production is really dry and made me lose interest pretty quick. Maybe one or 2 songs made me interested, which then quickly faded away after I listened. Just meh, not terrible but I won’t be listening again

I can see what’s good about it but it is incredibly dull

Some nice sounds but no soul. 2.5

Damn I really want to say this is boring. Its that lame sort of cozy. It feels forced in some ways. 2/5

There are a few songs in here that are pretty good but it ultimately reminds me too much of my annoying hipster self in like 2012-2013 to want to revisit

It's not a good sign when an album's intro is its most enduring track. An intro is supposed to hint at the possibilities of an album, with the later tracks building on that sound. Here, that build-up never comes. Pretty much every song has the same minimal, melodious sound of the intro. To be fair, there's probably a song here that's better than the intro, but most of them are so similar that it'd be hard to pick one. Choruses are subdued. Vocals lack emotion. Some songs, like "Fantasy," are barely there. And yet, I can't dislike this because it is all very pretty. It's a little hypnotic when it's on. The melodies are attractive, even if they're simple. Still, real catharsis never comes while listening to this, leaving an album that hints at the heights that indie rock can reach without ever reaching them. It's nice. But it's forgettable.

boring and plain. 2/5

Boring

They have a unique sound and they perform it well, but the vocal styling is not for me. So credit to them, but I really want to check out half way through the album.

Used to like them more when I was younger. Still okay but definitely dropped off for me.

I started out really enjoying this, but the more it went on, the more tired I grew of the sappy feeling songs. It's kinda funny that the song I enjoyed the most is Intro, but maybe it set my expectations for something else. Moodboard music I guess.

There are some good tracks on here, but they're interspersed with far too much low-tempo musical rambling, so it's hard to stay awake for long enough to notice them when they come. Favourite tracks: Intro, Heart Skipped a Beat, Night Time

boring - can’t distinguish between songs

The intro is the anthem to all influencer slop. I doubt the artists knew what their effect on the world would be. All in all, ok.

bland, lame.

damn i can't believe this was such a hit in 2008 it is boooooring

an okay listen, nothing special to me, bored me a little

It is giving soundtrack do jakiegoś early 2010s serialu w idk Brighton czy innym miasteczku UK o nastolatkach

2⭐️ I found this hard to rate! I think I was originally excited for the more indie tumblr-era sound so expected to rate it higher, but a lot of the songs didn’t really capture me. maybe needs a few listens! songs I already knew: n/a fave new song(s): crystalised

idk im just not enjoying the melancholic vibes of a lot of these albums, intro has gone viral at some point because i recognized it but the album sounds like something in the background of Love is Blind

Was it supposed to put me to sleep?

Confesso que não prestei muita atenção, coloquei de fundo enquanto jogava Minecraft, a intro é bem Minecraft vibes e bem maneira, não achei grandes coisa mas não é ruim nao

boring

Meh. Unobjectionable, but that's about it.

This kinda music isnt really my bag. Vocals were nice, I guess. Favorite Track: Crystalized

Going with Regnix here - the Intro is one of the most epic sounds created by humans. Rest is not my cup of tea.

The xx sind eine britische Band aus London. Ihr Debütalbum xx entstand überwiegend in den XL Studios im Londoner Stadtteil Notting Hill. Musikalisch bewegt sich die Platte zwischen Indie Pop, Dream Pop und minimalistischen Elektronik-Elementen. Auffällig ist die reduzierte Instrumentierung, viel Raum zwischen den Klängen und der zurückhaltende Einsatz von Beats und Effekten. Besonders prägend sind Songs wie „Crystalised“, „Islands“ und „VCR“, die den nüchternen, intimen Grundton des Albums gut widerspiegeln. xx wirkt bewusst unaufgeregt, entwickelt aber über die gesamte Laufzeit eine klare Atmosphäre und einen eigenen Charakter. Insgesamt ein geschlossenes Debüt, das weniger über Einzelhits als über Stimmung und Konsequenz funktioniert.

As someone who claims to love indie this just doesn’t speak to me much.

Boring. At least it has the decency to be short. 2/5

who gaf

late 2000s indie slop. there's a lot of that on this list and this is the worst of it. boring as all hell.

Not mine

Interesting

Not quiet my taste but it’s not bad in general

this album is truly not good

Really disappointed by this one after having just gotten their most recent album ("I See You") yesterday, which was an easy 4 stars. Too muddled and same-y without any appealing factors.

Not bad, just wildly bland. Like if the Cure weren't spooky and made music for coffee shops and yoga classes.

Indie pop unfortunately really isnt my jam

Quelques chansons sympa. Bonne ambiance

Some of the dream pop elements are really good, as well as r'n'b style grooves. It also feels very clumsy and kind of stumbling, which is very distracting to me. I very quickly noticed I stopped listening to the music and was more of a waiting game for the next distraction or annoyance that would kill the flow for me.

Knock-off, dollar store edition of Elliott Smiths' "XO." Best song was the intro.

Huh, so that's where that's from.

yass 2009 in a nutshell

Indietronica, very minimalist. I was not a fan of her vocal style. Through the first 3 songs I thought this would be a good album, unfortunately it went downhill for me.

Not bad, never felt like turning it off but at the same time none of the tracks really stuck.

Not terrible, not great, like a lot of the albums here just kind of there.

Meh

For some reason, this album kind of reminds me of Broken Social Scene, but not really in a good way. Where I find Broken Social Scene lively, complex, and interesting, I find The xx is more dull, muted, and boring. I think the similarities I see/hear is just because it’s indie music from the same era; I could absolutely see The xx playing at the Toronto Island Concerts back in the day or the more recent Field Trip Festivals at Fort York. Anyways, is there any Broken Social Scene on this list? There should be, and if there’s not, I’d trade this album for You Forget It In People.

Not sure what to make of this album. The vocals were really hit or miss for me with some songs being really pretty and others just being a bit lifeless. It's minimalist, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but "minimalist Britpop" is just not really a subgenre I find entertaining. Truthfully I don't think "boring" has any place in the Britpop space. However, I'll give this an additional star for a couple pretty songs.

Yep this sounded like 2009 lol It was like the soundtrack to tumblr or like I’m shopping at urban outfitters or something. I see where other bands got influenced though but I just didn’t care too much for their singing. Started off pretty solid but the second half just felt so slow and boring. It just felt like it was trying too hard to be deep and emotional.

I had high expectations for this one. Especially after an incredible starting track like Intro, which might be one of the top 20 best album opening tracks of all time (maybe?). But I have to say I'm disappointed. Nothing stood out, especially in terms of writing, it was all bland. I can understand what the fuss was all about for those who liked it in '09, mostly from a sonic point of view, but it didn't do the same for me.

robert christgau, on whom i depend to reliably and smugly shit on lame music, wrote about this album that “it’s hard to imagine their music getting much better.” so not only did i have to sit through another xx album of royalty-free tracks for AI-generated travel videos, i also lost faith in one of my favorite haters.

https://on.soundcloud.com/QirYqE9pABRARfU2dl

Not for me

Recognised 'Islands' from the radio but nothing else really resonated. It's clear it's 'first album' material but it doesn't engender the wish to go look for anything else.

Too dark and mysterious for me.

Meh

Electronic not my jam

Pretty boring, just never really went anywhere.

Very chill album. It was fine, but almost too chill in spots (if that’s a thing). I feel like I could have used a little more energy sprinkled throughout. I got some White Stripes vibes, but maybe just because of the male/female vocals sharing. Anyway, this was another one that I didn’t dislike, but I also know that I won’t be going back to.

If this were more dream pop, I might have liked it.

Honestly, I got more out of this when I listened to it the first time. On hearing it again, it feels flatter and less impressive. I also don’t care for the guy’s voice.

Prva pjesma mi je naslućivala bi moglo biti zanimljivo pa je otišlo u dosadu i cringe. 2/5, 3/10

Clearly well-produced but this simply lacks the juice. I prefer the songs where Romy's on lead vocals a bit more. Islands and Shelter are improvements over the others. Islands is a quietly propulsive, hooky tune. Shelter has a desperate ache to it. I understand people were over the moon about this album when it came out, but it mostly didn't land for me.

A coming of age album for many people, including myself, who reached their teens in the late 2000s/early 2010s. There's a quiet melancholy to the sparse guitars and light electronics here, which cosily contour the sensual lyrics. But with the exception of Intro, there aren't any songs with staying power and more than a decade later XX is a somewhat drab and underwhelming listen. Unfortunately this is a pattern with a lot of the indie-electro British scene in this era: not much of it has stood the test of time.

Intro est vraiment bonne. 5/5 Shelter est pas pire le reste: It doesn’t sound like they can sing. i mean good for them, art is for everyone but this is just not my cup of tea

Googling this band is not safe for work. Lo-fi millennial soft rock. That type that got famous just whispering rather than singing. They have a unique sound, I'll give them that. Like "We're disinterested in life, and only barely interested in doing this whole music thing." Perfect coffee shop music. Some moments sound vaguely Khruangbin--ish but without the wild funk and psychedelia. "Infinity" sounds like "Wicked Game" By Chris Isaak, but not as good.

The band just released a deluxe edition of this like today, perfect timing. I'll preface by saying that I like the xx. Before I give a perfunctory analysis that sounds mostly negative but isn't. Their debut album is foundational snoozecore, but they know that. Simple, homogenous compositions. Tender lullabye singing. Band name lowercase, no pretentions to capital letters. the xx whispered so that crumb could mumble. But that's the style. It's music for sensitive souls that need a break from loud noises or sudden tempo changes. Music for sitting in the dark with headphones, creeping your crush's posts. The guy's singing is pretty lackluster, I do admit. And Romy has distinguished herself a lot more as a solo artist since this album. And Jamie's productions have likewise come a long way. But they've got the cute best friend band thing going, and that's the charm. I do like the xx. I would see the xx live again. I will put my baby to sleep to the xx. But this is like a generous 2/5.

I don’t think I knew the band but I definitely remember some of these songs from this era. This first song makes me feel like I’m on hold. Very chill background music. I zone it out and forget to pay attention to it a lot but it’s soft and soothing. This album gets a little stronger by the end but I don’t think anything really grabbed hold of me.