| Always | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | February 28, 2012 (UK/EU) March 6, 2012 (worldwide) | |||
| Genre | Art rock | |||
| Length | 37:46 | |||
| Label | Polyvinyl (US) Bella Union (UK/EU) | |||
| Producer | Greg Saunier and Xiu Xiu | |||
| Xiu Xiu chronology | ||||
| ||||
Always is the eighth studio album by Xiu Xiu, released on February 28, 2012.
Always saw the return of Devin Hoff to Xiu Xiu's lineup. The album was produced by Deerhoof's Greg Saunier and mixed by John Congleton. [1]
The songs "Beauty Towne" and "Black Drum Machine" revisited subjects from earlier Xiu Xiu songs. "Beauty Towne" revisited the subjects of "Clowne Towne", while "Black Drum Machine" finished the narrative to "Black Keyboard". [2] "Joey's Song" was dedicated to Jamie Stewart's brother, while "Gul Mudin" was dedicated to the title person. "The Oldness" and "Chimneys Afire" were written by a band member Stewart fired, with the latter song about the author's attempted suicide during Xiu Xiu's tour. "Hi" is "about trying to find beauty and company in the realization that life, for the most part in incredibly difficult and that pretending otherwise only adds disappointment to hardship," while "Born to Suffer" is "about the potential for relief in ending one's own life, even just the thought of it, being mortified by life and about the earthquake in Haiti." [1]
The songs on Always also contained some social commentary. "I Luv Abortion" is about a young friend of Stewart's who decided to get an abortion because she felt she would not be a good parent if she had the baby, and most of the song's lyrics are taken from a series of e-mails between the two. "Factory Girl" is about the migration of women in China from rural areas to factories, and the harsh treatment they received working in the factories. [1]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AbsolutePunk | 9/10 [3] |
| AllMusic |   [4] |
| The A.V. Club | B+ [5] |
| Beats Per Minute | 45% [6] |
| Drowned in Sound | 9/10 [7] |
| The Independent | [8] |
| Pitchfork | 7.3/10 [9] |
| PopMatters | (7/10) [10] |
| Tiny Mix Tapes |   [11] |
Always has received mostly positive reviews. On the review aggregate site Metacritic, the album has a score of 78 out of 100, indicating "generally favorable reviews". [12]
Simon Price of The Independent gave the album a perfect score, calling it Xiu Xiu's finest album to date. [8] Ed Comentale of Tiny Mix Tapes also praised the album, writing "Xiu Xiu has been around for a while, but it is less a band or a trend that can fade with time than a critical germ cultivated and fed from within mainstream America. Such ugliness is for always." [11] In another positive review, Heather Phares of AllMusic wrote "It's apt that Always was made with Xiu Xiu's devoted fans in mind, since these catchy, desperate, searing, and searching songs aren't always the most accessible, but they show exactly why this band has such a dedicated audience." [4] The A.V. Club's Tuyet Nguyen gave the album a grade of "B+," writing "Jamie Stewart is definitely a bummer. A [person] of few positive affirmations, [they] continue [...] to be recursive, dispirited, antagonized, and bitter. [Their] wily charm is that they're endearingly so. They open old wounds with the grace of a jagged knife, and the catharsis feels great." [5]
Not all critics were entirely positive. Chris Bosman of Beats Per Minute criticized the album for rehashing the sound and lyrical matters of earlier Xiu Xiu albums, writing "So here's a sad truth about people: once they understand the tactics you're using to get your message across, the message loses its impact if you still attempt to approach them from that angle. Xiu Xiu has been doing exactly what they do on Always for ten years and nine LPs now." [6] Pitchfork contributor Carrie Batton also agreed in an otherwise positive review, writing "The difficulty for both casual and hardcore fans is that the receptors attuned to the Xiu Xiu experience have become desensitized, so that when a new album comes along, you have to ask yourself: Why should I even bother to listen to this?" [9]
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Hi" | 3:37 |
| 2. | "Joey's Song" | 3:36 |
| 3. | "Beauty Towne" | 2:40 |
| 4. | "Honeysuckle" | 3:12 |
| 5. | "I Luv Abortion" | 2:32 |
| 6. | "The Oldness" | 3:25 |
| 7. | "Chimney's Afire (Mickensian Suicide)" | 2:43 |
| 8. | "Gul Mudin" | 2:25 |
| 9. | "Born to Suffer" | 3:23 |
| 10. | "Factory Girl" | 2:21 |
| 11. | "Smear the Queen" | 3:19 |
| 12. | "Black Drum Machine" | 4:34 |
The following people contributed to Always: [13]
Xiu Xiu is an American experimental rock band, formed in 2002 by singer-songwriter Jamie Stewart in San Jose, California. Currently, the line-up consists of multi-instrumentalists Stewart, Angela Seo, and percussionist David Kendrick. The band's name comes from the Chinese film Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl, which has influenced the sound of their music, according to Stewart.
Fabulous Muscles is the third studio album by American experimental band Xiu Xiu, released on February 17, 2004 on 5 Rue Christine. The album marked a change in the band's sound, described as a depressive mix between experimental rock and synth-pop. It is considered to be more accessible than Xiu Xiu's previous two studio albums, A Promise and Knife Play. Fabulous Muscles has received mostly positive reviews from critics.
Deerhoof is an American musical group formed in San Francisco in 1994. They consist of founding drummer Greg Saunier, bassist and singer Satomi Matsuzaki, and guitarists John Dieterich and Ed Rodriguez. Beginning as an improvised noise punk band, Deerhoof became widely renowned and influential in the 2000s through their self-produced albums.
La Forêt is the fourth studio album by Xiu Xiu, released on July 12, 2005 on 5 Rue Christine. The album features John Dieterich of Deerhoof and Devin Hoff as contributors.
Knife Play is the debut studio album by American experimental rock band Xiu Xiu, released on February 19, 2002.
The Air Force is the fifth studio album by Xiu Xiu. It was released on September 12, 2006 and was produced by Greg Saunier of Deerhoof, who also performs on the album with band members Caralee McElroy and Jamie Stewart.
Holdypaws is the second album by the indie rock band Deerhoof. It was released in 1999 on Kill Rock Stars, and reissued on vinyl by the same label on November 22, 2019, to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Deerhoof. Jamie Stewart of Xiu Xiu, a band that has worked with Deerhoof's Greg Saunier, has praised this album, saying "I had never heard anything like it before. It completely blew my mind and changed the way I thought about what music could be." Henry Rollins has praised this album, in addition to the band's EP Green Cosmos, saying "it gets the blood going. What a band."
Dear God, I Hate Myself is the seventh studio album by American indie rock band Xiu Xiu released on February 23, 2010. This is their first album since the departure of Caralee McElroy. The album features new member Angela Seo on piano, synthesizer and drum programming, with production by band leader Jamie Stewart and Deerhoof's Greg Saunier. This album marked a departure from the more analogue styles of Women as Lovers and The Air Force, and shifted stylistic choices to a more chiptune style, utilizing the Nintendo DS' KORG DS-10 software to program drum and synthesizer tracks.
Not Music is the tenth studio album by English-French rock band Stereolab, released on 16 November 2010 by Drag City and Duophonic Records. The album is a collection of unreleased material recorded at the same time as their previous album, Chemical Chords (2008).
"Angels" is a song by English indie pop group The xx, released as a digital download on 17 July 2012 by Young Turks. It was the lead single for their 2012 album Coexist. The song was written by guitarist Romy Madley Croft, bassist Oliver Sim, and percussionist Jamie xx, who also produced it.
"Chained" is a song by English indie pop group The xx, released on 7 August 2012 by Young Turks. It was the second single from their 2012 album Coexist. The song was produced by percussionist Jamie xx and written by guitarist Romy Madley Croft and bassist Oliver Sim.
Nina is a Nina Simone tribute album by Xiu Xiu. It was released on Graveface Records on December 3, 2013, to generally favorable reviews.
Angel Guts: Red Classroom is the ninth studio album by Xiu Xiu, released on February 4, 2014. It was released in the US via Polyvinyl Records and in the UK via Bella Union. The album was recorded in the Los Angeles home studio of lead vocalist Jamie Stewart, and in the Dallas, Texas studio of producer John Congleton.
Plays the Music of Twin Peaks is a tribute album by American experimental band Xiu Xiu. Composed of cover versions of the music from the Twin Peaks soundtrack, it was released exclusively as a Record Store Day release on April 16, 2016, by Polyvinyl in the United States and Bella Union in Europe. It was produced by former Xiu Xiu member Jherek Bischoff and mixed by Deerhoof member Greg Saunier.
Gregory Lovell Saunier is a musician, producer, and composer best known as the drummer and founding member of Deerhoof.
Forget is the tenth studio album by experimental band Xiu Xiu, released on February 24, 2017. Produced by John Congleton, Greg Saunier, and Angela Seo, it features contributions from Charlemagne Palestine, Kristof Hahn, Vaginal Davis, and Enyce Smith.
Girl with Basket of Fruit is the eleventh studio album by American experimental band Xiu Xiu, released on February 8, 2019. It follows the band's 2017 album Forget and was co-produced by member Angela Seo and Deerhoof's Greg Saunier. The album is supported by the lead single "Scisssssssors", which was released with an accompanying music video. A second single, entitled "Pumpkin Attack on Mommy and Daddy", was also released with a music video on January 15, 2019.
Oh No is the twelfth studio album by American experimental band Xiu Xiu. It was released on March 26, 2021, via Polyvinyl. It is described as a "duets album". Its lead single, "A Bottle of Rum" featuring Liz Harris was released on January 27, 2021.
Hyunhye Seo, professionally known as Angela Seo, is an American multi-instrumentalist and vocalist best known for her role in American experimental band Xiu Xiu. Seo joined Xiu Xiu in 2009, and has contributed to every studio project by the band since The Air Force. The first album contributed to by Seo as a member of Xiu Xiu was 2010's Dear God, I Hate Myself. Seo has also played in the bands Deal$ and XXL, amongst playing on songs by Holy Hum and Blind Cave Salamander.
Ignore Grief is the thirteenth studio album by American experimental band Xiu Xiu, released on March 3, 2023, by Polyvinyl. It was written by band leader Jamie Stewart and new member David Kendrick. It was produced by fellow member Angela Seo, and recorded by Stewart at their home studio in Los Angeles, alongside a wide array of guest musicians including Charlie Looker, Ben Chisholm, Ezra Buchla, Patrick Shiroishi and Ian Wellman. The album artwork was designed by Janelle Abad, and depicts a white bat over a black background.
