The xx - Angels Lyrics

Song Summary

"Angels," the lead single from The xx's sophomore effort, Coexist, was written in 2012 by Romy Madley-Croft and Oliver Sim in London in an area called Angel. Despite it being a love song, it is sung by Madley-Croft alone, rather than the pair of Madley-Croft and Sim as the xx have typically done. For the first time, however, the two collaboratively wrote the lyrics for this song (as well as three others on Coexist).

Song Meaning

There are two characters hinted at in "Angels": Madley-Croft as the narrator - singing the chorus "Being in love, love, love" - and then the implied object of that character's love, to which the song is directed. As noted above, the song only features Madley-Croft as singer, forgoing the band's typical call-and-response structure. That fact may give evidence that the song is concerned with a deep and personal emotion.

The song's opening lines further that interpretation, belying a narrator experiencing a love that could border on obsession, feeling "more than [she] thought could exist." She is battling (in the first verse) with the fact that no one believes her claims about her object of affection's greatness. Though this could be a story-book romance, the turn comes as the narrator laments the end "com[ing] too soon." Her blissful state can't last because her love is based in a dream, a dream that doesn't match up with the reality of the relationship.

With this intepretation, the chorus takes on special importance. It isn't a hopeful statement of fact about the narrator's love, but rather a mantra meant to convince the narrator herself that she truly is in love. Subconsciously, she knows that the song's "you" isn't worth her love, isn't really the person she's in love with. But she can't quite let go, and falls back to convincing herself of her own delusions.

Song History

Forgoing an expensive studio, the band holed up in a cheap apartment in the Angel neighborhood of London for 15 hours a day, according to Madley-Croft. Coexist is the product of the band missing the end of their youth as they toured in the wake of the unexpected success of their self-titled debut. The band found themselves trying to earn back some of the typical experiences their peers had. Jamie Smith explained in a recent interview: "We've all come back off tour and been partying a bit more. We left when we were 17 and we missed out on that chunk of our lives when everyone else was partying. Club music has definitely had an influence on the next record."

Ironically "Angels," a harrowing love song, mines the same quiet tension of their past--"the simplest of love songs," as NPR called it. More ironic, it's the first time Madley-Croft and Oliver Sim, now in their early 20s, wrote a song collaboratively in the same room (rather than collaborating via the internet from their respective houses). Still, this introduction to the album is one of the most intimate songs they've written to date.

Sources:
http://www.thevine.com.au/music/interviews/the-xx-its-nice-not-feeling-cripplingly-shy/
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/music/news/a355038/jamie-xx-new-xx-album-in-time-for-2012-festivals.html
http://www.thevine.com.au/music/interviews/the-xx-its-nice-not-feeling-cripplingly-shy/
http://www.npr.org/blogs/allsongs/2012/07/16/156843334/the-xx-teases-new-album-coexist-with-the-simplest-of-love-songs