8. The xx, The XX (2009)

The xx’s first, and so far, only album is a self-titled LP of 11 minimal tracks about love, love lost, and longing for love. Driven by beat-machine synthetic drums and the two singers’ unique, fresh voices, The XX makes you realize how good it feels to have someone close to you, to have had a safe childhood, to have a secret world with someone else. Interestingly – and this may be shallow – but the physical appearance of the band members themselves really affect my perception of this album. None of them are really attractive, and the female singer, Romy Madley Croft, has a sort of awkward looking underbite that I surmise causes a minor speech impediment. These aspects actually make me like the music more, because somehow the lyrics and feelings of the songs themselves become more real, more genuine, and more relatable. The perfect album for a melancholy day of cleaning your apartment and fixing yourself an elaborate dinner, The xx’s self-titled debut should be in every depressed person’s iTunes library. The song here featured is “Crystalised.”