The xx’s eponymous debut album of 2009 was met with both critical and popular acclaim, with their minimalist indie pop and emotive lyrics creating a hypnotic sense of catharsis that cemented the band’s place in both the charts and fans’ hearts. Songs like ‘Intro’, ‘Crystalised’ and ‘Islands’ quickly became iconic. When their sophomore effort, Coexist, was released three years later, they developed their sleepy sound by adding dreamy reverb (as heard on ‘Angels’) to the picked guitar of their first album. The last time we heard from the band was on ‘Together’, a song recorded for Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby, which once again embraced a heavily reverberated guitar tone and alternating male and female vocals.

While their previous releases have shown musical continuity, much has changed on I See You. From the very beginning, Jamie xx’s presence is far more prominent. Although the usual husky vocals in octaves are still present on ‘Dangerous’, the first song on the album, Jamie’s drum tracks and horns mark a departure from their previously guitar-based sound. This is in no small part down to Jamie’s solo success, with his work on his debut album In Colour (which reached no.3 in the UK charts in 2015) having clearly affected his approach to the band’s sound. This is particularly evident on the single ‘Say Something Loving’, which begins with a sampled intro and offbeat guitar reminiscent of tracks on In Colour. Once the vocals come in, the syncopated guitar begins to make rhythmic sense, and we are hurled straight into the new sound of The xx.

“Their sound still has the power to envelop us, their lyrics still draw us in.”

The track ‘Lips’ marks the strongest union of the band’s traditional vocals and guitar and the drum-oriented influence of Jamie xx. A choir-like harmony introduces the song and returns throughout, as the guitars and drums build to a magical peak around the three-minute mark. As Romy Croft sings “My name on your lips / you’re wearing my lungs / drowning in oxygen”, the band’s somber nature takes a sexy turn, and we too feel “high on intimacy”. Their sound still has the power to envelop us, their lyrics still draw us in.

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But the record’s most poignant moment is yet to come.  The closing track ‘Test Me’ starts with odd-sounding parallel fourths in the piano, but the chorus ditches the weirdness in favour of smooth bass and subtle horns, alongside the stunning lyrics “Just take it out on me / it’s easier than saying what you mean / test me, see if I break / tell me this time you’ve changed”. The lyrics are intensely vulnerable, sound beautiful, and give the whole album a feeling of closure.

I See You is not perfect by any means. Songs like ‘Dangerous’ jar with the imprecision of combining different timbres, while tracks such as ‘A Violent Noise’ fade slightly into forgetfulness. But the singles ‘On Hold’ and ‘Say Something Loving’ are strong, ‘Performance’ and ‘Brave for You’ are subtly charming, and ‘Lips’ and ‘Test Me’ are so stunning that they largely forgive the album for its small discrepancies. I See You provides a welcome relief to the xx-shaped hole in the charts and the understated beauty of this new record is unlikely to disappoint fans