The xx - Fiction

In our round-up of the best songs of 2012, Ruth Saxelby said of Fiction by The xx, “Sim is caught between despondency and desire, let down by his own white lies to himself, a feeling it’s all too easy to relate to.” In the band’s official video for the track, released this afternoon, they tap directly into that emotion, with Oliver Sim wandering around a monochrome and minimalist house full of sleeping people – including his bandmates – and looking wistfully over open landscapes. Moving through a sparse environment both physically and musically, his imagination and emotions have space to roam – just as listeners find a place for their own ideas and empathy to bloom inside The xx’s music, a quality that keeps it so consistently, bewilderingly good.

The London leg of the xx’s Night + Day festival, featuring Solange and Mount Kimbie, will take place on Saturday 22nd June; get more information on that here.