By LoffMusic Editorial Staff – August 2025
It’s been three years since Oliver Sim – the intimate voice of The xx – released his first solo album, Hideous Bastard (2022). Today he returns with a breath of mystery and sensuality in his new single “Obsession”, accompanied by a haunting and elegant music video starring iconic British model Erin O’Connor.
Produced by the avant-garde duo Bullion and Taylor Skye (of Jockstrap), this song marks a new chapter in his sonic universe, clearly detached from the “Jamie xx aura” with which he debuted. Although Sim and Jamie maintain their artistic link, each explores a voice of his own at this stage.
“Obsession”: emotional chromatics and self-absorbed elegance
The song grabs from the first note with an atmosphere charged with latent tension: smooth, enveloping rhythms, a whispering bass line and a polished production that embraces desire and fascination. It’s not a ballad, but it’s not a beat-heavy beat either: it’s an undercurrent that slips into the sensual.
Visually, the music video amplifies that nocturnal and elegant halo. Directed by Sharna Osborne, it turns the frame into a game of silent chemistry between Sim and O’Connor; every look, silence or gesture is an emotional discharge. Whole aesthetic but loaded with subtextual electricity.
From Hideous Bastard to a new sound skin
His solo debut, Hideous Bastard, produced by Jamie xx, was a pure confession: even overflowing. It spoke of identity, HIV, fear and emotional release. In contrast, Obsession represents a more stylized evolution: less confessional, more interpretive and playful, focusing on more subtle attraction and desire.
In between, the three members of The xx (Sim, Jamie xx and Romy) reunited on 2024 for the track “Waited All Night” from Jamie’s album In Waves, and a new album from the band is already in the offing. This solo comeback then feels like a creative interlude between shared eras.
A step forward without losing identity
“Obsession” is not a break, but a more discreet and sophisticated opening. It is a piece that invites you to read between the lines, to feel rather than listen. If Hideous Bastard was intense and direct, this return moves with stealth, confidence and a refined sense of the forbidden.
Oliver Sim doesn’t need anything more than his voice, his presence and that luminous sensibility. And we are grateful for it.
