At once dark, complex, impossibly honest, and yet, somehow simple, "Fabulous Muscles" is almost accessible in its minimalist-pop appeal. This record was written on the heels of huge upheavals and violent personal changes, so there's less of a dance influence and much more of a pop and academic/experimental feel. Sounds are used to rhythmically push some songs forward in a top-40 way, but with fewer straight beats. Noise restrictions also led to more use of single, quiet acoustic instruments. This record is...   [ read more ]

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#48 Seller of 2005! To hear Xiu Xiu is to be shaken, disturbed, and shown something original. Jamie Stewart sings haunted and tortured, though always with a sense of humor somewhere below the poisoned blood. La Foret is his most harrowing and beautiful to date, waltzing between acoustic parts so intimate you can hear his shoe scooting on the studio floor as he inches closer to the mic, and pounding dark-wave thunderstorms where electronics go Mogwai loud and Jamie screams over the hissing, spitting deluge....   [ read more ]

CD $15.99

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Whereas current indie-rock darlings Interpol have taken all the favorite parts from your favorite new wave bands and fashioned them into refreshing new pop songs, San Francisco's Xiu Xiu have salvaged all of the ignored dark fragments of your favorite new wave songs and turned them into some refreshingly disconcerting new anti-pop songs. If last year's excellent "Knife Play" album was the soundtrack to a nervous breakdown, "A Promise" is the soundtrack to the final desperate act of a hemorrhaging psyche.

CD $13.99

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Clap Your Hands Say Yeah  Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, TV on the Radio  Young Liars, Sufjan Stevens  Illinois