Xiu Xiu: Women As Lovers

Label: Kill Rock Stars

Never spending too much time on a single idea, Xiu Xiu lashes out and recoils repeatedly to a blown-out, dizzying and theatrical effect on the band’s latest, Women As Lovers. Dark acoustic folk dirges and found-sound gamelan samples alike serve as haunted backdrops for Jamie Stewart’s distinctive vocals and always intense, often sexual lyrical portraits. No band can make freaking out sound so fragile quite in the same way as Xiu Xiu, and never has that sound been as realized as it is here. Even without all that, the bizarre cover of Queen’s “Under Pressure” (with Swan’s Michael Gira playing the original’s David Bowie role) alone is worth the price of admission. CD comes with bonus DVD of videos, tour footage and hundreds of photos. (Fred)