The xx

The xx’s songs are still and spacious things. The guitars and bass
recall early New Order (when they still sounded hollowed out by the
loss of Ian Curtis); the beats are muted, bedroom-bred stuff. But
the sensual, often sexual tension in covocalists Romy Madley Croft and
Oliver Sim’s close-quartered, whisper-soft boy/girl duets fills their
album’s latent spaces with an animating electric charge. And deeper
listens reveal subtle rhythmic action and addictive melody in
their deceptively quiet songs. With Friendly Fires, Holly Miranda.
(Neumos, 925 E Pike St, 709-9467. 8 pm, $12, 21+.)