Xiu Xiu - La Forêt [Jade Eco-Mix]

Repressed on vinyl for the first time in fifteen years. La Forêt arrived in 2005 and remains one of the subtlest records Xiu Xiu have made, which in this catalog also means one of the scariest.

The fusion at work here should read as academic on paper: post-punk, gamelan, synth pop, folk, and noise, stacked into eleven songs. It never does. Jamie Stewart's writing is too overloaded with feeling for that, and the emotions arrive tangled rather than sorted, love and hate and sex and violence and fear and humor clinging to each other so tightly you cannot pull them apart. "Clover" and "Muppet Face" open in near-whispers, "Pox" and "Bog People" turn without warning, and "Yellow Raspberry" closes on something that sounds almost like relief.

Harsh and beautiful stay intertwined for the full running time, and the restraint is what makes it land. Where other Xiu Xiu records shout, this one leans in close.

This pressing is on jade eco-mix vinyl, out September 25, 2026 through 5 Rue Christine. First vinyl availability since 2011.