Xiu Xiu 13" Frank Beltrame Italian Stiletto with Bison Horn Grips

Critic's Take

Xiu Xiu's 13" Frank Beltrame Italian Stiletto with Bison Horn Grips finds the band embracing pop while keeping its mucid undercurrent, and the review makes clear why songs like “Common Loon” and “Bobby Bland” stand out. The writer balances surprise and appraisal with punchy, conversational lines, noting that the lead single “Common Loon” delivers the pop sound some wanted while “Bobby Bland” exposes Xiu Xiu's darker lyrical bent. This is presented as one of the band's most immediate and poppy records, yet still carrying the bleak wit that makes their sad music danceable. The tone is welcoming and evaluative, saying if this is your first Xiu Xiu album, you have "picked a great time to show up."

Key Points

• The best song is the lead single “Common Loon” because it delivers the accessible pop sound the reviewer praises.
• The album's core strength is mixing pop immediacy with Xiu Xiu's dark, witty lyrics to make sad music you can dance to.

Themes

Critic's Take

Xiu Xiu’s 13" Frank Beltrame Italian Stiletto with Bison Horn Grips finds its best tracks in moments that translate feeling into physical sensation, most notably “Arp Omni” and “Common Loon”. The reviewer lingers on how “Arp Omni” catches grief in a single hushed vocal and how “Common Loon” becomes anthemic weirdness-joy, making them the best songs on 13" Frank Beltrame Italian Stiletto with Bison Horn Grips. The album’s pop lean only sharpens Xiu Xiu’s ability to embody emotion, so the best tracks stand out as visceral, immediate and surprisingly accessible. This record rewards repeated listening by turning familiar song structures into uncanny, gut-level experiences.

Key Points

• “Arp Omni” is best for its immediate, gut-level vocal grief that embodies emotion.
• The album’s core strength is turning conventional pop structures into intensely visceral, experimental expressions.

Themes

Critic's Take

Xiu Xiu's 13" Frank Beltrame Italian Stiletto with Bison Horn Grips feels like Jamie Stewart finally steering chaos into songcraft, and the best tracks - notably “Veneficium” and “Sleep Blvd.” - are outright bangers. The reviewer's gleeful, barbed voice praises moments where industrial menace and bright synths collide, celebrating the album's polish without mistaking it for tame. It reads as Stewart under control, still perverse and glittering, songs sharpened into blade-like distillations of desire and self-loathing. This keeps the focus on the best songs on the album as instances where anti-pop becomes strangely accessible and devastatingly catchy.

Key Points

• The best song(s) are high-energy, accessible 'bangers' where industrial menace and bright synths collide, exemplified by “Veneficium” and “Sleep Blvd.”.
• The album's core strengths are tightened songcraft, a polished production that preserves Xiu Xiu's abrasive edge, and vivid themes of desire and impotent violence.

Themes

Critic's Take

In his exacting, analytical voice John Wohlmacher finds Xiu Xiu’s 13" Frank Beltrame Italian Stiletto with Bison Horn Grips to be a deliberate experiment in rockcraft. He singles out “Maestro One Chord” and “Arp Omni” as exemplars of the record’s strengths, praising Kendrick’s percussion as an "architectural skeleton" and calling the ballad haunting and Scott Walker-like. The review frames the album as more approachable and compositional than some prior work, even while noting uneven moments like the goofiness of "Veneficum". Overall Wohlmacher positions Stiletto as a dense, artful rock album that rewards repeated listening and close attention.

Key Points

• “Maestro One Chord” best exemplifies the album’s new rock architecture through Kendrick’s structural percussion.
• Stiletto’s core strengths are dense production, compositional mastery, and a newfound approachability within Xiu Xiu’s avant-garde frame.

Themes

Critic's Take

Xiu Xiu remain provocateurs on 13" Frank Beltrame Italian Stiletto with Bison Horn Grips, balancing unsettling intimacy with corrosive noise. The review reverberates with praise for quieter moments like “Arp Omni” and the muscular immediacy of “T.D.F.TW.”, which together show why fans and newcomers alike will search for the best songs on 13. The record is refreshing for revealing so many of the band’s sides, from hymn-like strings to proto-metal heft, making its best tracks unmistakably Xiu Xiu in tone and risk.

Key Points

• The best song excels by combining relentless industrial force with urgent vocals, making it feel vital and dangerous.
• The album's core strengths are its range between hymn-like intimacy and abrasive, inventive arrangements that showcase the band's risks.

Themes

Critic's Take

Hi, everyone. Switchthony Bladetano here, and on 13" Frank Beltrame Italian Stiletto with Bison Horn Grips the best songs - notably “Common Loon” and “TDFTW” - show Xiu Xiu returning to punchy, catchy rock while keeping their unsettling edge. The record feels like a back-to-basics move, with David Kendrick's hard-as-hell beats and Jamie Stewart's incomparable vocals driving tracks like “Common Loon” into anthem territory. You get blissful warmth colliding with lo-fi harshness, and the closing meltdown on the finale confirms this is one of their most invigorating, accessible records in years.

Key Points

• The best song, “Common Loon”, is the record's anthem thanks to layered, blissful but lo-fi production and a catchy hook.
• The album's core strengths are Jamie Stewart's intense vocals, Kendrick's hard-hitting drums, and a return to punchy, accessible rock textures.

Themes

Critic's Take

Xiu Xiu's 13" Frank Beltrame Italian Stiletto with Bison Horn Grips is, surprisingly, one of their more accessible records in years, and the album's best tracks - notably “Breeze” and “Never Leave” - show a new restraint and melodic clarity. The reviewer repeatedly returns to the idea that songs like “Breeze” pare back the usual tumult, making them the standout moments here. Even when the band flirts with the unconventional, these tracks anchor the record and explain why listeners asking "best songs on 13" Frank Beltrame Italian Stiletto with Bison Horn Grips" will point to those quieter, clearer moments. The voice remains admiring but measured, noting accessibility without claiming a full reinvention.

Key Points

• The best song is best because it pares back Xiu Xiu's usual tumult into clearer, melodic focus.
• The album's core strengths are its surprising accessibility and moments of measured restraint that anchor the record.

Themes

Critic's Take

Xiu Xiu's 13" Frank Beltrame Italian Stiletto with Bison Horn Grips lands as a superlative pop record that still cycles through extremes, and its best tracks - notably “Common Loon” and “Piña, Coconut & Cherry” - crystallise that push and pull. Claire Biddles writes with wry wonder, admiring Stewart's swaggering guitars on “Common Loon” and the album-closing melodrama of “Piña, Coconut & Cherry” as signature moments that balance celebration and terror. The opener “Arp Omni” sets the confessional stage, but it is the richly defined heights of songs like “Sleep Blvd.” and “Pale Flower” that make this Xiu Xiu both more accessible and no less visceral. This is an album you can loop, start again, and find its best songs waiting to puncture and uplift in equal measure.

Key Points

• The best song work balances celebratory queerness and melodramatic extremity, exemplified by “Common Loon” and the finale “Piña, Coconut & Cherry”.
• The album’s core strengths are its maximalist production, adventurous percussion, and an accessible yet visceral take on industrial pop.

Themes

Critic's Take

Xiu Xiu's 13" Frank Beltrame Italian Stiletto with Bison Horn Grips is a deliciously chaotic record that delights in unpredictability, where tracks like “Arp Omni” and “T.D.F.T.W” stand out for their emotional intensity and abrasive invention. Maplethorpe revels in the album's mess and broken amplifiers, praising the way heavy riffs and low-rumbling synths suddenly give way to screams and dislocated rhythms, making “Arp Omni” a melancholic opener and “T.D.F.T.W” a fugue-state highlight. The review frames the best tracks as those that embrace sonic rebellion, so for listeners asking "best tracks on 13\" Frank Beltrame...", these two songs encapsulate the record's daring and reward repeat listens.

Key Points

• The best song(s) are those that marry melancholic songwriting with abrasive unpredictability, exemplified by "Arp Omni" and "T.D.F.T.W".
• The album's core strength is its committed embrace of chaos, distortion and abrupt shifts that keep the listener off-balance and engaged.