If you haven’t heard The xx before, their unique sound is hard to describe, but it's irresistible. (I still regularly turn to their first record from 2009 for everything from road trips to cooking music.) The music is soft, and although the vocals are lovely centerpieces, they also somehow fade into the songs. Chord arrangements are simple but combine to make beautiful tracks.
Not many artists stay sharp, relevant, and great into their 70’s and later (Picasso, Neil Young, Vladimir Horowitz, et al., come to mind), I have no problem including Bob, at 71, in this elite group. If you are a Dylan fan and don’t have this record you must run, not walk, to your computer and order it.
If this is your introduction to Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, you are meeting a man part-genius, part-indulgent rambler. His score’s of albums under a variety of names (Palace Music, Palace Brothers, Palace, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Bonnie Billy, Bonnie 'Blue' Billy, & Will Oldham) are expansive and lonely, romping and snide, and all together strangely harmonious
