As probably unrepeatably great as their hushed debut was - a vein in which they very much continued on their follow-up Coexist (hushedness rather than greatness) - there's a thrill to hearing the xx open up and stretch more extrovertedly skywards on confident, sweetly swooning tracks like "Say Something Loving", "Replica" and "On Hold", while even the more traditionally 'xx'-feeling quieter songs vibrate with a newfound brightness and colour, everything mixed more sharply and vividly (witness "A Violent Noise", "I Dare You" and the Portishead-summoning neo-torch of "Performance"). Very good.
