As well as fronting Years & Years, 24-year old Olly Alexander is an acclaimed actor who starred in TV series Skins and period movies Bright Star and Great Expectations. At times, it’s hard to know if he’s still acting. Every “ohh-ohhhh” is accompanied by a theatrically extended arm; at one point, he clutches his heart.
Years & Years’ entire career reads like a film script. The clean-cut actor turned vocalist by chance, when synth player Emre Turkemen heard him singing at a party. After placing videos online, the band were snapped up by hip French imprint Kitsune before major label Polydor helped them reach the top 30. Recently, they picked up the BBC sound of 2015 award (previous years’ winners include Adele and Jessie J). It could yet go all badly wrong, but you wouldn’t put your house on it. With Alexander’s boyish charisma in overdrive and even new and unknown songs being greeted by screams, at times this intimate gig feels like a giant test tube incubating a pop phenomenon.
As their music has gradually shifted mainstream, their gentle house grooves have given way to cheesier poppy choruses, and they don’t always navigate the fine line that separates the gorgeously airy from the beige and lightweight. More edge wouldn’t go amiss. However, with Alexander’s gossamer falsetto reminiscent of a young Michael Jackson, it’s hard not to be swept up by Desire’s euphoric, singalong-friendly melody. When he sits at the piano, the big-lunged ballads sound arena-ready.
“We’ve never done an encore before,” says the cherubic singer, as the audience yell for more. However, launching into the breezy, synth-soaked King – the new single, released this week – suggests that expecting to perform one was definitely in the script.
