The xx covers ‘Last Christmas’ with characteristic doom, gloom

“Last Christmas,” the great sad-sack holiday jam by Wham!, has been covered by countless acts since the song’s release in 1984. And a good number of those interpreters -- from Jimmy Eat World to Crazy Frog to Ashley Tisdale of “High School Musical” -- did what they could to add some pep to George Michael’s tale of romantic woe under the mistletoe.

The xx? Not so much.

In an in-studio set broadcast Monday by the BBC, the English electro-goth minimalists strip “Last Christmas” to its heartbroken core, singers Romy Madley Croft and Oliver Sim trading miserable-sounding vocals while Jamie Smith pumps out a gloomy club-soul thump. It definitely emphasizes the memory of last year over the promise of this one. (Listen to the song below.)

The xx recently created an app related to its 2012 album “Coexist,” and it’s due to kick off a U.S. tour in January, though no L.A. dates have yet been announced.

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