As Xiu Xiu is anything and anyone that wobbly, quivering singer/sound-sculptor Jamie Stewart wants (David Lynch’s music to Twin Peaks, ever-changing membership), Forget is no different, yet very different, from the previous Xiu Xiu and the Xiu Xiu before that. Now with production and playing from John Congleton, Greg Saunier (Deerhoof) and Kristof Hahn (Swans), Stewart finds himself somewhere between Suicide and ABBA with hints of dub, drone, first John Foxx solo-album twitches and Nervous Norvus in the fuzzy, fussy, souped-up mongrel/mix. In its sparest moments such as “Get Up,” Stewart allows his sizzling synths and uneasy melodies a calm retreat as he croons absurdist lines like “a piano fell on my face” through simple echo processors.
Most of Forget, though, is more overly ornate, synthy arrangements and grand sonic gestures, all while Stewart quavers (“The Call”), throatily hacks (“Queen Of The Losers”), growls through the clutter (“Wondering”) and tap dances across a silvery sheen of garage organs and sand-shifting percussion (“Hey Choco Bananas”). It’s really good Xiu but not the best Xiu; surely Stewart is readying something else new Xiu as we speak.
—A.D. Amorosi
