Photography by Owen Richards

The buzz bandwagon hit NYC last week along with the 2009 CMJ Music Marathon — and this precocious London quartet did not disappoint. With the exception of guilefully covering Womack & Womack’s ’80s R&B hit “Teardrops”, the xx’s setlist stuck chiefly to their self-titled debut. The reverb-heavy interplay of guitars and harmonies between Romy Madley Croft’s smoldering siren’s call and Oliver Sim’s disaffected croon wonderfully recalled Interpol and Pixies at both bands’ most intimate moments. And while Sim’s bass proved too much to handle at times for the usually solid-sounding Mercury Lounge, the live drums added a greater gravitas to the basic digitized beats pervading the record’s gothic lullabies. All things considered, it was a stellar performance by these dark stars in waiting.

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