Review
Genre and Mood
Martina Topley-Bird, Mark Lanegan and Warpaint turned Crystalised, The xx’s quiet debut single of 2009, into something slower and heavier. Their label, No.19, called it a detour into downtempo indie and funk; Resident Advisor heard a delightfully slow brew. The feelings on this page, melancholic and hypnotic, follow the rueful voices and the slow groove those sources describe.
Song Summary
The cover was first heard online in September 2012, when FACT wrote that its origins were unknown and that Massive Attack and Warpaint were named as possible contributors. According to Resident Advisor, it had been meant for a shelved album of remixed tracks from The xx’s first LP. It came out a year later on No.19, presented by Art Department: Topley-Bird, known for her vocals on Tricky’s Maxinquaye, sings Romy Madley Croft’s part, and Lanegan, once the singer of Screaming Trees, sings Oliver Sim’s. The label wrote that the song was rebuilt from the bottom up with Warpaint’s instrumentation, with executive production by Jonny White and Anthony Middelton.
Musical Breakdown
No source walks through the cover part by part; these notes follow what the reviews heard.
Intro
Listen for the groove FACT called syrupy settling in before the voices arrive.
Main Section
The two voices trade the song as Croft and Sim did. Resident Advisor heard rueful vocals over heavy-limbed bass and chiming percussion, and FACT heard the melody carried by a xylophone that would suit The xx.
Outro
Listen for how the slow brew ends at under four minutes, the length of the Original Mix on the release.
Concepts in Focus
A cover version can keep a song’s words and melody and change everything else. Compare The xx – Crystalised: the same dialogue, here sung by two very different voices that, in FACT’s words, energise the song with a new character.
The words Original Mix exist because of the remix. No.19 released the cover with house versions: Frankie Knuckles and Eric Kupper’s Director’s Cut kept the vocals at the front, Agoria kept only snippets in a deep house stew, and Deniz Kurtel buried them in what Resident Advisor called coal dust.
The music video, directed by Javier Badet with animation by Tim Razumovsky, pairs singing heads of Lanegan and Topley-Bird with animation and overcast imagery, as the label described it; Stereogum called Topley-Bird the star of the show.
Artistic Context
Topley-Bird and Lanegan had sung together before, on Need One from her 2003 album Quixotic. No.19 was Art Department’s label, and Resident Advisor called the release an interesting detour for it.
Impact and Reception
The remixes took the song into clubs: MusicBrainz lists the Director’s Cut on Defected compilations. The original remains the place to hear the two voices as they were recorded. Play it after The xx and listen for what changed.
