When several people close to Xiu Xiu's Jamie Stewart and Angela Seo were victims of human trafficking, addiction, murder, and other horrors, the duo had to process its feelings through music. Compared to the empowering messages of support and friendship on their previous album Oh No, Ignore Grief's overwhelming fear, despair, anger, and loss is all the more jarring -- and a potent reminder that few other acts can express trauma in their music so completely. With Seo and Stewart splitting the vocal duties and dividing the ...
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When several people close to Xiu Xiu's Jamie Stewart and Angela Seo were victims of human trafficking, addiction, murder, and other horrors, the duo had to process its feelings through music. Compared to the empowering messages of support and friendship on their previous album Oh No, Ignore Grief's overwhelming fear, despair, anger, and loss is all the more jarring -- and a potent reminder that few other acts can express trauma in their music so completely. With Seo and Stewart splitting the vocal duties and dividing the album's songs into real-life stories and imaginary ones, they draw from musical forms capable of harnessing extreme emotions: modern classical, experimental industrial, and the teen tragedy songs of the 1950s and '60s. While Xiu Xiu filter these elements through their own distinct lens, Ignore Grief also feels singular within their body of work. Though it immediately ranks among their most harrowing albums along with Angel Guts: Red Classroom and Girl with a Basket of Fruit, it doesn't reach the frenzied peaks of those works, nor does it offer any relief from its agonized tales. Punctuated by shrill metallic shivers, Stewart's anguished vocals and the jolting brass and woodwinds on "666 Photos of Nothing" make the skin crawl, but the track's restraint is just as powerful as its outbursts. Ignore Grief may also be Xiu Xiu's loneliest-sounding album. These pieces vividly convey how forsaken their characters are, even when they're as different as "Maybae Baeby"'s harshly electronic portrait of an abused child hiding from its parents or "Pahrump"'s lush, ultimately suffocating vignette of small-town addiction. As Xiu Xiu fully embrace their avant-garde side on suite-like tracks such as "The Real Chaos Cha Cha Cha," Seo's production skills shine. Ignore Grief's sonic detail is especially impressive on "For M.," where piercing synths, queasy strings and woodwinds, and sheet metal percussion courtesy of newly christened member David Kendrick all remain formidably distinct from each other. Kendrick -- who's also known for his work with Devo, Sparks, and Gleaming Spires -- plays an essential role in the proceedings, whether adding more intensity to the aforementioned track or a subtler mystery with the chromatic percussion on "Dracular Parrot, Moon Moth." The contrast of Seo's and Stewart's voices is another key to the album's success. The former's flat sprechgesang lends a worn-down misery that complements the high drama of the latter's tremulous whispers, aching falsetto, and operatic bellows, and both approaches express Ignore Grief's devastation eloquently. As relentless as it is, somehow the album isn't numbing. Stewart, Seo, and Kendrick make every tragedy and outrage feel fresh, and those who thrill when Xiu Xiu are willing to go to the places many artists won't will be awed by Ignore Grief's ferocious empathy. ~ Heather Phares, Rovi
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