Album Review: XO - Heart

19 February 2014 | 1:36 pm | Dylan Stewart

It’s a change from the pop-punk stylings of their original band, Say Anything, for Jake and Jeff Turner; a considered sound that reverberates long after the listener puts down their headphones.



An album billed as “a unique mixture of indie rock and shoegaze” deserves to be approached with caution, but, as Atlanta-via-Long Beach duo XO display with their debut LP, Heart, there's a way to straddle that divide without appearing either trite or self-indulgent.
There's a bittersweetness across the record, exemplified on Waste, which douses the world in a washed-out filter, but never overwhelms the eardrums. It's a change from the pop-punk stylings of their original band, Say Anything, for Jake and Jeff Turner; a considered sound that reverberates long after the listener puts down their headphones.