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The solo debut from xx frontman Oliver Sim (produced by bandmate Jamie xx) feels important, even life-saving, straight from the opener "Hideous." His voice on the verses is so deep and looming it threatens to loosen something at your core. "I'm ugly … I'm bloody/ But I don't feel as though I've been unlucky/ I have people in my life who really love me," he sings. "Caught my reflection in your eyes/ Now you've seen me from both sides/ Am I hideous?" The subterranean music shifts as he belts out "oh-ohhhhhhh"—flying even as horror-show strings tug at its coattails. Suddenly, the breathtaking falsetto of Jimmy Somerville swoops in like a guardian angel: "Follow my voice/ Sweet natured boy/ Just to keep you safe" And then Sim's bared revelation: "Been living with HIV/ Since 17/ Am I hideous?" It's the first time he's publicly talked about his diagnosis. "This record isn't about HIV," he said not long before the record's release. "I'm not naive, I know it's going to be talked about and it will be a defining part of it, but that's not how I see this record. It's about shame, it's about fear and it's celebratory." Indeed, it's a musical study in light and shade. "Unreliable Narrator" bears multi-layered vocals and a Depeche Mode-like drone. "Sensitive Child" is spare yet goth-industrial, the line "you're not the person that I knoooooooooow" dragged out until it's freezing. Likewise, Sim sings the title of "Confident Man" over and over again until a wraith-like voice and slithering beat chases after him out of the spotlight. But there is also "GMT," sampling Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks' "Smile Backing Vocals Montage" and about, Sim has said, "pining over a love back home, thousands of miles apart on different time zones. It's also a love letter to London." When Wilson's soothing high tenor "harmonizes" with him, it's heavenly. Wilson and Parks also get credit on album ender "Run the Credits"—which lightly percolates and uplifts even as the lyrics feel doomed. "Disney princes, my God, I hate them/ I'm Buffalo Bill/ I'm Patrick Bateman," Sim sings, reminding repeatedly that "Romeo dies in the final scene." On "Saccharine," which feels like both a hymn and a James Blake outtake, Sim marvels at being charmed by lightness: "I never had a taste for the saccharine/ It's a miracle you got in." The incredible "Fruit" is perhaps the most xx-like, bouncing on elastic bass and, again, Somerville's chilling falsetto as heartache is wrung from every ethereal note. The romantic longing and indecision feels oddly joyous, in the way of Sleater-Kinney's "One More Hour." "Do I take a bite, take a bite of the fruit?/ I've heard other people say/ It can't be right if it causes you shame," Sim sings. "Wrong or right/ You're standing right in front of the green light/ Just look at his face, what a beautiful face/ How it makes you feel inside … Take a bite, babe, it's an ordinary thing." © Shelly Ridenour/Qobuz
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James Smith, Composer - LeXXX, Engineer - John Davis, Engineer - David Wrench, MixingEngineer - Lee Hazlewood, Composer - Jimmy Somerville, Lyricist, FeaturedArtist, AssociatedPerformer - Oliver Sim, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer, ComposerLyricist - Universal Music Publishing Ltd., MusicPublisher - Criterion Music Corp., MusicPublisher - Universal Music Publishing Group, MusicPublisher - BMG Rights Management (UK) Ltd., MusicPublisher - Jamie xx, Producer, Programmer, StudioMusician - CMRRA, MusicPublisher
2022 Young 2022 Young
Sam Dees, Composer - James Smith, Composer - David Wrench, MixingEngineer - Alex Dromgoole, Engineer - Oliver Sim, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer, ComposerLyricist - Universal Music Publishing Ltd., MusicPublisher - Universal Music Publishing Group, MusicPublisher - Primary Wave, MusicPublisher - Shelby Singleton Music, MusicPublisher - Jamie xx, Producer, Engineer, Programmer, StudioMusician - William Crump, Composer - CMRRA, MusicPublisher
2022 Young 2022 Young
James Smith, ComposerLyricist - Del Shannon, ComposerLyricist - David Wrench, MixingEngineer - Alex Dromgoole, Engineer - Oliver Sim, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer, ComposerLyricist - Universal Music Publishing Ltd., MusicPublisher - BMG Rights Management, MusicPublisher - Universal Music Publishing Group, MusicPublisher - BMG Rights Management (UK) Ltd., MusicPublisher - Mole Hole Music, MusicPublisher - BELTON STREET MUSIC INC, MusicPublisher - Jamie xx, Producer, Programmer, StudioMusician - CMRRA, MusicPublisher - Appoline Avenue Music Inc (BMI), MusicPublisher
2022 Young 2022 Young
James Smith, Composer - LeXXX, Engineer - John Davis, Engineer - David Wrench, MixingEngineer - Oliver Sim, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer, ComposerLyricist - Universal Music Publishing Ltd., MusicPublisher - Universal Music Publishing Group, MusicPublisher - Jamie xx, Producer, Programmer, StudioMusician - CMRRA, MusicPublisher
2022 Young 2022 Young
James Smith, Composer - LeXXX, Engineer - John Davis, Engineer - David Wrench, MixingEngineer - Oliver Sim, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer, ComposerLyricist - Universal Music Publishing Ltd., MusicPublisher - Universal Music Publishing Group, MusicPublisher - Jamie xx, Producer, Programmer, StudioMusician - CMRRA, MusicPublisher
2022 Young 2022 Young
James Smith, Composer - LeXXX, Engineer - John Davis, Engineer - David Wrench, MixingEngineer - Oliver Sim, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer, ComposerLyricist - Universal Music Publishing Ltd., MusicPublisher - Universal Music Publishing Group, MusicPublisher - Jamie xx, Producer, Programmer, StudioMusician - CMRRA, MusicPublisher
2022 Young 2022 Young
James Smith, Composer - LeXXX, Engineer - John Davis, Engineer - David Wrench, MixingEngineer - Oliver Sim, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer, ComposerLyricist - Universal Music Publishing Ltd., MusicPublisher - Universal Music Publishing Group, MusicPublisher - Jamie xx, Producer, Programmer, StudioMusician - CMRRA, MusicPublisher
2022 Young 2022 Young
Van Dyke Parks, ComposerLyricist - James Smith, Composer - David Wrench, MixingEngineer - Alex Dromgoole, Engineer - Oliver Sim, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer, ComposerLyricist - Brian Douglas Wilson, ComposerLyricist - Universal Music Publishing Ltd., MusicPublisher - Irving Music, MusicPublisher - Universal Music Publishing Group, MusicPublisher - Jamie xx, Producer, Programmer, StudioMusician - Harry Fox Agency, MusicPublisher
2022 Young 2022 Young
James Smith, ComposerLyricist - David Wrench, MixingEngineer - Jimmy Somerville, AssociatedPerformer - Alex Dromgoole, Engineer - Oliver Sim, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer, ComposerLyricist - Universal Music Publishing Ltd., MusicPublisher - Universal Music Publishing Group, MusicPublisher - Beggars Music, MusicPublisher - Jamie xx, Producer, Programmer, StudioMusician - CMRRA, MusicPublisher - Alex Peringer, Lyricist
2022 Young 2022 Young
Van Dyke Parks, ComposerLyricist - James Smith, Composer - LeXXX, Engineer - John Davis, Engineer - David Wrench, MixingEngineer - Oliver Sim, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer, ComposerLyricist - Joe Winter, AssociatedPerformer - Brian Douglas Wilson, ComposerLyricist - Universal Music Publishing Ltd., MusicPublisher - Irving Music, MusicPublisher - James Fountain, ComposerLyricist - Jamie xx, Producer, Programmer, StudioMusician - Azrock Publishing Co., MusicPublisher
2022 Young 2022 Young
Album review
The solo debut from xx frontman Oliver Sim (produced by bandmate Jamie xx) feels important, even life-saving, straight from the opener "Hideous." His voice on the verses is so deep and looming it threatens to loosen something at your core. "I'm ugly … I'm bloody/ But I don't feel as though I've been unlucky/ I have people in my life who really love me," he sings. "Caught my reflection in your eyes/ Now you've seen me from both sides/ Am I hideous?" The subterranean music shifts as he belts out "oh-ohhhhhhh"—flying even as horror-show strings tug at its coattails. Suddenly, the breathtaking falsetto of Jimmy Somerville swoops in like a guardian angel: "Follow my voice/ Sweet natured boy/ Just to keep you safe" And then Sim's bared revelation: "Been living with HIV/ Since 17/ Am I hideous?" It's the first time he's publicly talked about his diagnosis. "This record isn't about HIV," he said not long before the record's release. "I'm not naive, I know it's going to be talked about and it will be a defining part of it, but that's not how I see this record. It's about shame, it's about fear and it's celebratory." Indeed, it's a musical study in light and shade. "Unreliable Narrator" bears multi-layered vocals and a Depeche Mode-like drone. "Sensitive Child" is spare yet goth-industrial, the line "you're not the person that I knoooooooooow" dragged out until it's freezing. Likewise, Sim sings the title of "Confident Man" over and over again until a wraith-like voice and slithering beat chases after him out of the spotlight. But there is also "GMT," sampling Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks' "Smile Backing Vocals Montage" and about, Sim has said, "pining over a love back home, thousands of miles apart on different time zones. It's also a love letter to London." When Wilson's soothing high tenor "harmonizes" with him, it's heavenly. Wilson and Parks also get credit on album ender "Run the Credits"—which lightly percolates and uplifts even as the lyrics feel doomed. "Disney princes, my God, I hate them/ I'm Buffalo Bill/ I'm Patrick Bateman," Sim sings, reminding repeatedly that "Romeo dies in the final scene." On "Saccharine," which feels like both a hymn and a James Blake outtake, Sim marvels at being charmed by lightness: "I never had a taste for the saccharine/ It's a miracle you got in." The incredible "Fruit" is perhaps the most xx-like, bouncing on elastic bass and, again, Somerville's chilling falsetto as heartache is wrung from every ethereal note. The romantic longing and indecision feels oddly joyous, in the way of Sleater-Kinney's "One More Hour." "Do I take a bite, take a bite of the fruit?/ I've heard other people say/ It can't be right if it causes you shame," Sim sings. "Wrong or right/ You're standing right in front of the green light/ Just look at his face, what a beautiful face/ How it makes you feel inside … Take a bite, babe, it's an ordinary thing." © Shelly Ridenour/Qobuz
About the album
- 1 disc(s) - 10 track(s)
- Total length: 00:34:06
- Main artists: Oliver Sim
- Composer: Various Composers
- Label: Young
- Genre: Pop/Rock Rock Alternative & Indie
2022 Young 2022 Young
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