Coexist

Releasing a debut album as instantly iconic as the xx's self-titled effort was could be intimidating, but the group's second album, Coexist, shows no signs of caving in under pressure. Between albums, the band's status -- and expectations for their follow-up -- grew as Jamie Smith worked with Gil Scott-Heron on the remix album We're New Here (which in turn spawned the Drake song "Take Care," which sampled the pair's "I'll Take Care of U"). Fortunately, as songs such as "Angels" and "Chained" showed, the group hadn't lost any of their deceptively simple, restrained-yet-mysterious allure while they became famous.