Personnel: Jamie Stewart (vocals, whistling, guitar, banjo, mandolin, flute, conch shell, harmonica, harmonium, organ, synthesizer, bass guitar, drums, castanets, kalimba, shaker, percussion, electronic percussion, gong, chimes, electronics); Caralee McElroy (vocals, flute, piano, harmonium, synthesizer, glockenspiel, bass guitar, bass drum, snare drum, electronics); Hyunhye Seo, Michael Gira (vocals); John Dieterich (guitar); Ella Duche (violin); Roberta Lechat (viola); The Great Egret Quartet (strings); Howard Wiley, Howard Wiley (saxophone); Darren Johnston (trumpet); Ches Smith (synthesizer, bass synthesizer, vibraphone, glockenspiel, drums, snare drum, congas, cymbals, shaker, triangle, percussion, electronic percussion, gong); Devin Hoff (acoustic bass, double bass); Gabriel Mindel (turntables); Greg Saunier (vocals, organ, Wurlitzer organ, bass synthesizer, electronic percussion).

DJ: Gabriel Mindel.

Audio Mixer: Greg Saunier.

Recording information: Math Lab Studio, Oakland, CA.

For their sixth and best album, WOMEN AS LOVERS, Xiu Xiu responds to every far-flung movement of leader James Stewart's tirelessly twitchy muse. The result is an epic that deftly crosses so many genre lines--from the gently arpeggiated folk of "Black Keyboard" to the neo-industrial stomp of "White Nerd"--one could easily mistake Stewart for a gothy, indie incarnation of Prince.

But the digital versus organic schizophrenia holds together as a result of Stewart truly embracing his band for the first time on record. In this case, his touring unit: drummer Ches Smith, bassist Devin Hoff, and the increasingly important multi-instrumentalist Caralee McElroy. The unit dynamically awakens the core of doomy mania in Stewart's songwriting and makes every performance pop. WOMEN AS LOVERS also features a cameo by ex-Swan legend Michael Gira dueting with Stewart on a heartfelt (and a little humorous) cover of "Under Pressure."

Xiu Xiu is so expert at straddling the line between avant-garde and indie rock that they've completely erased it. On Women as Lovers, there's less of a gap than ever between the band's ironically poppy (but genuinely) catchy songs and their experimental, unflinching ones. "I Do What I Want, When I Want" opens the album with chirpy synths and hints of a cheerful xylophone melody that are abandoned in what sounds like a sheet metal factory; hooky "doo-do-doo-do-doo" backing vocals are put through a distortion wringer. It's intense, it's uneasy -- but it's also strangely immediate in a way that only Xiu Xiu can manage. Over the rest of Women as Lovers, Jamie Stewart, Caralee McElroy, and crew cover the spectrum of their sounds, from "No Friend Oh!"'s outraged almost-pop to "Puff and Bunny"'s broken, self-loathing gamelan. The band's approach is so well defined now, so cleverly honed, that small changes make a big difference in their sound. Women as Lovers has a rough richness that sets it apart from La Foret's fractured electronics or The Air Force's spaciousness: percussion and voice are the album's main motifs, augmented by strings, super-saturated synths, and caustic guitar. "In Lust You Can Hear the Axe Fall" crashes in on big rock drums, then retreats into gentle, reverbed passages; "You Are Pregnant, You Are Dead" is muscular and downright brutal, with a steeply climbing melody pushed onward by more massive drums. In fact, much of Women as Lovers is as bleak as its namesake, Elfriede Jelinek's 1995 novel, but Xiu Xiu covers a wider scope, giving voices to many complex and anguished characters and situations. As always, the band rarely oversimplifies matters -- witness "White Nerd"'s mix of rage and sympathy. Women as Lovers gets increasingly bleak as it unfolds: on "Guantanamo Canto," Stewart sings, "My country needs this freedom/To contradict your humanness" as synths overtake the song like an invasion; "Black Keyboard," one of several songs about children, addresses child abuse in a way that's extremely unsettling even by Xiu Xiu's standards. Despite the album's grimness, Xiu Xiu leaves some room for hope with an inspired cover of "Under Pressure," with Michael Gira playing David Bowie to Stewart's Freddie Mercury. Their version is faithful enough to sing along to, and has that unmistakable bassline, but the atonal brass adds more tension and urgency. It's a call to arms, especially in the face of all of the pain outlined in the rest of the album. Xiu Xiu's unswerving intensity is admirable, but it can be a lot to take -- then again, they probably scared away the faint-hearted years ago. Nobody else sounds like Xiu Xiu, and they've made themselves even more singular on this album. ~ Heather Phares