Xiu Xiu
Fabulous Muscles

THE REVIEW

“Amado-loathed musical group,” this would be the definition you’d find in any music dictionary under the entry Xiu Xiu; this is because Xiu Xiu, you either love them, or quite the opposite, you can’t stand them. Starting from the assumption that the reviewer of this album leans towards the former, let’s begin to “scan” this Fabulous Muscles, the latest album by Xiu Xiu.

It starts with a little keyboard tune that very much recalls The Stranglers of The Raven (so we're heading towards '80s music), the song in question is called “Crank Hearth,” characterized by the usual Xiu Xiu style, namely a frenzied synth rhythm accompanied by Breathless/Tormented/Screamed singing. The album continues with, in my opinion, the most beautiful track of the album, namely “I Luv The Valley OH”. In this case, the guitar is more present, and the vocal part is very reminiscent of the voice of Interpol; this song has the peculiarity of having a “sort of” chorus but unfortunately just when the song starts to get you... it ends and you find yourself in Bunny Gamer (also in Interpol style, it somewhat reminds of Stella was driving…, but much more alternative and experimental).
“Little Panda McElroy” is a very sad song, the vocal part, if it can even be called singing, is heart-wrenching, like an electronic Decades (Joy Division).
“Fabulous Muscles,” which gives the album its name, together with “I Luv Valley OH,” is among the best tracks of the album, the only musical instrument present is an acoustic guitar, of which you only hear a few strums.
“Brian The Vampire” seems to have jumped out from John Foxx’s Metamatic, an electronically Crazy song coming straight from the '80s synth experiments.
The album couldn’t have ended better with a desolate track named “Mike.”
All the references to groups mentioned above have been written to orient
a song to a certain type of sound, but in truth, Xiu Xiu's music is hardly
reviewable and orientable; the only thing you can really do is listen to them, not once, but many, many times and in different situations; only then do you have the chance to understand this type of music and this type of group.
I personally haven’t listened to them that many times to be able to give a 5/5, Xiu Xiu should be listened to at certain times of the day, and in the right spirit. A well-deserved 4/5.