As our first Tune for Tuesday of the new year, let’s take a look at a very new release, “Say Something Loving”, from The xx off of their upcoming album.
First off, happy new year! Hopefully, you’ve slowly started emerging from the haze of not knowing what day it is and whether or not you should be working. By the way, it’s Tuesday, and it’s no longer a holiday. To kick this year off right, we’ve picked a newly-released track from The xx.
Titled “Say Something Loving”, the song will feature on the band’s upcoming album, I See You. On Monday, the band released the official audio to YouTube. You can listen to it below:
According to Genius, the “Before it slips away” and additional samples come from the Alessi Brothers’ song “Do You Feel It?” Samples aside, let’s break down some of the lyrics.
The xx actually has two vocalists: Romy Madley Croft and Oliver Sim. Unsurprisingly given the actual title of the song, they’re talking about the idea of saying something affectionate to someone — and how unfamiliar that can be sometimes, to either say it or hear it.
In a year where certain events, political or otherwise, may make it hard to be positive, yours truly thinks that the idea of saying something loving whenever possible might not be a bad one. Although both singers start out unsure and ask for some sort of reassurance, they do both warm up to the idea eventually. The final chorus actually changes the lyrics to reflect this transition. Finally, the song ends by repeating “Before it slips away”.
In other words: love people before they slip away.
“Say Something Loving” isn’t the first song from The xx’s new album. They’ve already released “On Hold” in both an official audio and music video form.
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The new album from The xx, I See You, drops Jan. 13.