The xx close their sophomore album Coexist with this minimalist ballad in which the trio pay tribute to each other. "And there's no one else. Who knows me. Like you do. What I've done, you've done too," sings guitarist Romy Madley Croft and bassist Oliver Sim. "It's a friendship song," Madley Croft told Spin magazine. "It's the first time we've kind of just written about the love of friendship. Oliver and I felt quite keen to write a song that we felt reflected off each other. It's for Jamie [Smith, DJ-producer] as well. It's the only song where I've ever addressed Oliver and he's addressing me."
The xx titled the album Coexist to get across unity and togetherness. Sim explained to 7Digital United Kingdom: "There was talk of calling the album 'Together' but, even though it's such a simple word, for me it's very 'nice' and conjures up quite a twee image. I think we wanted to do something with a darkness to it, that was a bit more honest about how relationships can be."
He continued: "Romy found the word 'coexist' when doing artwork research. She was looking at the way oil and water make those beautiful rainbows when mixed together and found a line about it: 'Oil and water don't mix, they agree to peacefully coexist.' She's a bit of a romantic and really liked that, and saw a mirror in what we do – in that we're three separate people and we only make this music when we come together. So the word 'coexist' seemed a lot more honest and it felt right."
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