Years & Years are having a great year so far, voted top in the BBC’s Sound of 2015 poll in January, and shortlisted for Critics’ Choice at the Brits as a band guaranteed a stellar future. This week saw the trio reach a new peak, arriving in their adopted home town on their first headline tour, just before they hit the number one spot with their new single, King.
They saved that song for the encore, its soaring chorus and zippy electronics proving irresistible as lasers twirled. But there was plenty more to excite a rowdy crowd — voices and phones were raised for earlier singles Take Shelter and Real too.
Like Disclosure, the band are making distinctively British dance music, but in this case the songs are unified by Olly Alexander’s voice, a delicate instrument of boy-band purity.
He was nervy and giggly despite a background as an actor, forced into excess chatter by technical difficulties.
But there was no faulting the songs, audible sunshine which ought to float from every car window when a debut album arrives in summer.
A spinning silhouette beneath a lightshow that made this more club night than gig, Alexander promises to be this year’s most joy-inducing frontman.
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