I was kind of blundering in and out of romantic dalliances, let's say, and not really knowing what I wanted or trying to figure that stuff out. SIMON: I notice you say hookups and not love or romance.ĪLEXANDER: Oh, what does that say about me (laughter)?ĪLEXANDER: Well, for me, the kind of few years that I was sort of focusing on, like, writing this album, I was single. So I kind of fell back in love with dance music and, you know, wanted to write songs about hookups and going out and just liberation of the dance floor. I live alone, and all I wanted to listen to was dance music, stuff that made my body move and made me feel good in this, like, very visceral way. Well, a lot of the album came from the lockdown period when I was just, like a lot of people, spending a lot of time by myself in isolation. SIMON: A lot of this album feels like you just got out of lockdown and started dancing. Olly Alexander joins us now from London.ĪLEXANDER: Thank you so much for having me. Now he has a solo project, still under the band's name, and has released his debut album, 'Night Call.' It is a cocktail of lust, love, pride and self-discovery. SIMON: The English pop star has been the front man of Years & Years for more than a decade and released many hits with that band. Man of my dreams, tell me where are you, where are you now? Sweet-talker. You made me believe every lie was a beautiful sound. “Take me out, somewhere loud,” he adds on ‘20 Minutes’, rushing towards the comfort of the dancefloor.ĭespite its touchstones, ‘Night Call’ draws sparingly on the hallmarks of ‘80s synth-pop– while the likes of Dua Lipa, Kylie, Jessie Ware and Miley Cyrus have laden their own records with strutting slap-bass, Years and Years third record retools these sounds for contemporary pop – it’s less of a tribute, and instead integrates a smattering of squelching synth-sounds and bright French House-indebted beats in more subtle ways.OLLY ALEXANDER: (Singing) You're such a sweet-talker. “I’m not one for casual intimacy,” he shrugs.Īt times ‘Night Call’s escapism makes way for something more insidious – “If all i know is hurt, I’d rather be high,” Alexander sings on ‘Make It Out Alive’. Soaring into falsetto, ‘Intimacy’ has the outside appearance of sultry slow-burner about some very intense and solemn face-stroking, but is instead bitingly realistic about the long-term prospects with the person he’s just tied down to his four-poster. On ‘Crave,’ Alexander begs for “the pain from you” atop discordant piano pounds, and a muffled bass that feels like it’s pounding out of a hidden basement door, “I’ll do anything to stay if you want me to”. just put it all into the record.”Īccordingly, hunger rumbles at the centre of ‘Night Call’ – as well as being made up of the most immediate songs Years & Years have ever released, an insatiability burns at their centre.

“I put all the kind of stuff I was missing, like going out, dancing, having sex. Loosely inspired by the pounding soundtrack of bittersweet ‘80s bangers that soundtrack It’s A Sin – from Bronski Beat, Wham! and Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark to the Pet Shop Boys hit that titles the show – the album takes its name from a euphemism for hooking up, and across its 14 tracks it celebrates dancing the night away in sweaty nightclubs and the giddiness of locking eyes with a brooding stranger across the bar.Īs Alexander explained to Zane Lowe recently on Apple Music 1, even the process of making it felt like going on a filthy staycation from the drudgery of pandemic life. The touchstones for ‘Night Call’ are also a lot more direct – primarily, it’s a straight-for-the-pop-jugular record of escapist moments.

That same playfulness is present here in spades. As much as ‘King’ was a straight-up Number One hit, it also hinted at sexual power dynamics with lyrics exploring control and submission.

The pogoing wobble-synth bassline of ‘Starstruck’, powering forward a huge chorus made for blasting out of the radio, feels like a single that bridges the gap with the direct songwriting of Years & Years’ debut album. If ‘Palo Santo’ felt like a welcome left-swerve into boundary-pushing pop, ‘Night Call’ feels a little like its prequel.

Years and years night call