Xiu Xiu – 13" Frank Beltrame Italian Stiletto With Bison Horn Grips

Xiu Xiu return with 13" Frank Beltrame Italian Stiletto With Bison Horn Grips, their most accessible and fun project to date

Album Review by Noah Barker | 23 Sep 2024
  • Xiu Xiu – 13" Frank Beltrame Italian Stiletto With Bison Horn Grips
Album title: 13" Frank Beltrame Italian Stiletto With Bison Horn Grip
Artist: Xiu Xiu
Label: Polyvinyl
Release date: 27 Sep

Gather a bedazzled high heel, the head of a rotting pig, and the No New York compilation on vinyl, and paint a ritual circle using chalk to place them within; light a candle in the middle and you'll summon Xiu Xiu. In a discography ping-ponging between styles like a teenager discovering Tumblr, the noise-collage rockers have often brushed the underside of accessible, incurring a rush of fanbase excitement each time. It’s only now that the most pretense has been dropped, and Xiu Xiu is as close to Jack White as a Redditor could conceive.

You’re forgiven for your apprehension, like when Swans breached the Top 40 with To Be Kind, but make no mistake – this is an example of the world bending around Xiu Xiu, not the other way around. Single Veneficium is a perfect descriptor for this varied, warped take on garage rock. It contains the feverish vocals and terrifying soundplay that Xiu Xiu listeners use as warm ambience by now, but layered within (not substituted by) a true-blue rock song, with blues riffs, no less. It has the right amount of foot in each grave, keeping an interesting idea interesting, no matter the makeup. For all those not baptized in Jamie Stewart’s fire, this is your last call: they’re not returning this generously again.

Listen to: Common Loon, Veneficium, Sleep Blvd.

http://xiuxiu.org