When I saw that the title of Xiu Xiu’s latest album was Dear God I Hate Myself, it suddenly hit me: I have fallen completely out of love with Jamie Stewart and everything he does under the name Xiu Xiu. This was not a total shock to me. This had been coming for years. I didn’t bother to buy Air Force or Women as Lovers until I found them in the used bin, and they have gotten little airplay in my apartment since my initial purchase. But the break came earlier. Closer to the release of La Foret and the subsequent tour. I found La Foret’s refusal to deliver anything remotely catchy such a letdown after the electrifying, visceral pleasures of Stewart’s first three albums. Clearly, something was broken. This was intensified from the less-than-exciting show they put on in Austin on the tour to support that album. I had to re-evaluate my entire relationship with the band.
But warning signs had come even earlier. The previous Xiu Xiu show had taken place in an art gallery, and when a very drunk acquaintance started dancing during the testing of Xiu Xiu’s samplers, Stewart tried to convince gallery staff to eject the guy. The show was great, but the audience’s restrained enthusiasm, coupled with Xiu Xiu’s performance convinced me that this was not rock music, nor dance music. Xiu Xiu is Jamie Stewart’s vehicle for artistic expression, and he expected us to listen politely and appreciate his art. It would make sense then if subsequent albums and shows were increasingly frustrating as Stewart continued to disregard any audience expectations. Therefore it’s come as a bit of surprise to find out that the decline of Xiu Xiu has involved nothing of the sort. Instead of becoming more frustrating and inaccessible, Xiu Xiu’s music has just become boring. Dear God I Hate Myself is not a bad album because the artist took risks and failed, or sold out and deserted his fans. It is a failure because Xiu Xiu has simply stopped writing and recording interesting songs.
Sure, the hallmarks of a typical Xiu Xiu album are there: tortured vocals and bizarre noises –both electronic and otherwise. But it’s just not the same. In fact, these staples of Xiu Xiu albums of the past just sound out of place here. For instance, there are Stewart’s vocals. He has a tendency to sing as if he is always about to break down in tears, and an ability to sing as if his entire world is about to end and he is ready to lose control of himself in one final frenzy. The former is ever-present on this album, and the latter is disappointingly missing. None of the songs on here have the same manic joy of “I Broke Up,” “Crank Heart,” “Blacks” or “Apistat Commander.” Opening track “Gray Death” isn’t half bad –the melody is catchy, and the beat moves at a brisk pace— but Stewart destroys any joy that could be found with his whimpering vocals. “Beat beat beat me to death,” he sings, and you really can see him cowering in a corner as he awaits further punishment. Maybe someone finds this engaging, but I don’t. “Cumberland Gap” almost sounds like a folk song with its banjo and snare drum instrumentation, but Stewart sings this like he would sing any other Xiu Xiu song with his quavering vocals. It eliminates any folksy feel the song might have had and just feels anachronistic. Stewart’s delivery style also renders a simple “la la la” on “Apple for a Brain” silly and melodramatic. And these are not melodies that can sustain this kind of delivery.
Also present on the album is Xiu Xiu’s tendency towards atonal nose, both electronic and otherwise. Only, this time it just feels unnecessary and wasted. Nearly every song on here is filled with random percussion and electronic noise, resulting in distractions that only make the already weak songs sound even less substantial. Or maybe they’re there because the melodies are dull and this is the only way Stewart could think of to make the songs interesting. I can’t say that the random atonal percussion adds anything to “Chocolate Makes You Happy,” but I can’t honestly say that there was ever much of a melody to distract from. This just makes me yearn for the truly bizarre “Pony Girl,” where Stewart took a pretty, melancholy acoustic song and tore it apart in the middle. No such creative destruction happens here. Instead of using noise to make a point or build intensity, noise is deployed as a gimmick or an atmospheric effect.
To be honest, I’d be just fine if Xiu Xiu turned their back on songs like “Pony Girl,” “Support Our Troops!” and “Rose of Sharron” in favor of songs like “Dear God I Hate Myself.” Despite its title, “Dear God I Hate Myself” is a mostly catchy and enjoyable tune. I think I could also forgive Xiu Xiu if they went the other way and made their songs more atonal and challenging. The problem is that Stewart has chosen neither. The songs here are all melody driven and structured. But they also all feature his eternally fragile and uneven vocals and random bits of noise thrown around the mix. Stewart is trying to have it both ways. He is simultaneously making his songs more accessible to a broader audience while trying to retain the challenging elements of his music that makes him appealing to certain critics. The end result is an album that feels totally devoid of any sense of danger. Xiu Xiu may have their most attention grabbing album title yet, but unfortunately the music herein is their most forgettable.
Track List:
1. Gray Death
2. Chocolate Makes You Happy
3. Apple For A Brain
4. House Sparrow
5. Hyunhye's Theme
6. Dear God, I Hate Myself
7. Secret Motel
8. Falkland Rd.
9. The Fabrizio Palumbo Retaliation
10. Cumberland Gap
11. This Too Shall Pass Away (For Freddy)
12. Impossible Feeling [3]
