Years & Years
Night Call
Polydor
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Back in 2015, when Years & Years’ single “King” went straight in at #1 on the UK singles charts upon its release, it remained to be seen that seven years later, artist Olly Alexander would be more relevant than ever. Though his musical success began with the group’s chart-topping debut album Communion (2015) and was cemented on his celebrated follow up Palo Santo (2018), Alexander has spent the past four years breaking away from his bandmates and bringing wider projects up to speed. He’s starred in the brutal, award-winning HIV-era drama It’s A Sin, become Kylie Minogue’s new best mate, and casually collaborates with Elton John on the weekends.
For those of us who have followed his career trajectory, all that remained to witness was the continuation of an artistic hot streak in his solo music career. No easy task—once you’ve won over the public on album #1, and the critics on album #2, the stakes are higher than ever, not to mention the likes of Dua Lipa, The Weeknd and Lil Nas X blew the pop game wide open in your absence. Sure, they’ve raised the bar, but Years & Years’ third LP does a good job of closing the gap with a succinct tracklist of debauched, throwback dancefloor pomp.
Night Call wastes not a second, diving directly into the nightclub from the very first beat and rarely letting up. There’s a whole lot of colour here to portray Alexander’s irresistible hedonism, from wicked strings on the chorus of “Sweet Talker” to prime, beefy bass on lead single “Starstruck.” Thematically, it’s impossible to say that Alexander is not defiantly, respectably, instinctively himself. His stories are fueled by personal history and encounters, brazenly wistful about his sexuality and often carefree.
At its most predictable, Night Call does make me long for the organic touches that made Palo Santo such a cool album—the closely-mic’d percussion, the warmer bass and the almost indie touches of songs like “Sanctify,” which provided a more visceral sense of drama that he carried so perfectly. Though it does occasionally tap into the sweet spot of Palo Santo’s Mixolydian drama, Night Call is consistently vivid and camp across the track list. While Palo Santo was a dance album for the headphones, Night Call is a hi-fi album primed for neon flooring, and perhaps that’s where Olly Alexander was always meant to be.
The version available on Spotify is called the New Year’s Edition, a fitting title for the band’s sole remaining member to envision a future from. It concludes with his biggest hits and a peppering of A-list collaborations, showing that Alexander is pretty rapidly curating a vital Greatest Hits set. Night Call owes a lot to the talent of some of pop’s most indelible, and it’s great to see they love him back.
While Alexander solidifies his ranking in the UK’s pop hierarchy, I’m hopeful he doesn’t settle in one place. He must use this experience as a springboard into something greater. Perhaps we expected to see a bigger departure as Alexander’s first go solo behind the wheel, but this is slick, satisfying, and far from dropping the ball.
Notable Tracks: “Consequences” | “Night Call” | “Starstruck”
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