My Years & Years Top 15 Countdown
Troye Sivan was my gateway drug to gay pop and Kim Petras raised my interest but Years & Years is when it became an addiction. I look up to all the gay popstars but none more than Olly Alexander. His commitment to the LGBTQ community, raising awareness for mental health, his relationship with his fans, and the compassion and empathy that he exudes at all times is so inspiring. Olly uses his platform to help others constantly and at the same time he is not afraid to display his true authentic self at all times. Olly is a pop star but he’s not a product and he is not someone who will be polite and remain quiet if the situation demands otherwise. His outspokenness and eloquent arguments about politics and human rights is always riveting to watch and with Years & Years being a superstar act in the U.K. Olly’s message gets heard by the masses in a way Troye Sivan hasn’t achieved in the U.S. or the U.K. What I am trying to say is that Olly is my spirit animal and I look to him on how to live my best gay life.
Initially I thought I was gonna do a top 10 for Years & Years but then I realized I needed to make this a top 15 because I couldn’t cut songs 11-15. In some ways Years & Years has surpassed Troye Sivan as my favorite gay pop act but it’s still pretty neck in neck. Years & Years have other great songs not on this list but these are definitely the 15 songs I have been listening to non-stop since September 2018.
15. Preacher
Preacher reminds me a bit a of Dusty Springfield’s Son of a Preacher Man except the son of the Preacher Man is gay here and Olly is teaching him the ins and outs of love and gay sex. Olly is also encouraging the son to come out of the closet and live his authentic life finally and not listen to the lies from his father. It’s a song that is about overcoming internalized shame and not letting others make you feel less because of your sexuality.
14. Real
The group’s first single off Communion sometimes gets lost in the shuffle but it’s a great dance song that also pointedly uses the “He” pronoun in 2015 when that was even more taboo than it is now. I like the way this song opens where it feels like the music is slowly coming into focus.
13. Up in Flames
Olly said this song was his attempt to create a song that bridged the gap between a Britney Spears song with a Chaka Kahn song and damn if he didn’t pull it off. Once you hear Up In Flames you realize this is equal parts Chaka Kahn and Britney Spears and it’s catchy as heck with fantastic production. In general Years & Years has a wonderfully dense sound with top notch production and that may have to do with the fact that besides Cub Sport, Years & Years is the only gay pop act that’s actually a band with all members contributing equally to the final product.
12. Play
Years & Years collaboration with Jax Jones resulted in one of their biggest hits. This one I liked but didn’t love at first but after multiple listens I now love it which is credit to a pop song that gets better over time rather than worse. We ended up with 3 different music videos for Play between the cartoon video, the live video in an arcade and the official music video. I bring this up because this seems to be a new practice in the streaming age where to keep a song’s interest level high you keep releasing different videos to keep the audience engaged and coming back for more. Of the 3 videos the middle one where they perform at a video arcade is my favorite because it has all my childhood favorites such as Mario Kart, Street Fighter 2, The Simpsons and my favorite video game of all time Mortal Kombat II.
11. Hallelujah
A lot of fans love this song. In fact I can tell quit a few them felt this should have been a single. Palo Santo for me is so stacked with great music that I can understand why this was never a single but it doesn’t mean I have to like it either. This is a club banger about connecting with someone else on a purely sexual level and it’s pretty hot.
10. Rendezvous
I love how Olly described performing this song live where he said he feels like a witch conjuring up a sex orgy! God I love Olly.
09. Sunlight
The beat to this song is worth the price of admission alone. Olly singing on top of this beat is the cherry on top. My husband loves this song which means it’s a bop!
08. Meteorite
All I can think of when I hear this song is Olly on the Graham Norton show talking about how he wrote this song for Bridget Jones Baby. Olly says he wanted to know what Bridget Jones wanted and the cast of Oceans 8 says “a baby” and Olly responds with “Um No. I was thinking a big dick right? That way I can relate.” It’s this kind of off the cuff outspokenness and humor that makes Olly so endearing but also separates him from the likes of Troye Sivan and Sam Smith. Olly is who he is and he is not going to change to make straight people more comfortable with his gayness. The song is an absolute bop and I can confirm that because my husband loves this one too. Too bad they didn’t perform this song in D.C. The couple from North Carolina I know was very disappointed. This music video is also when Olly really lets his gay flag fly!
07. Karma
Karma deals with a subject that is universal among LGBTQ people but is rarely touched upon within the mainstream, especially in pop music. Like Troye Sivan's Heaven, Karma deals with the idea that from a very young age gay people are implanted with a strong sense of shame. The reason being that we grow up in a culture that is not built for us and said culture also doesn't typically show us a lot of understanding or empathy either. Here Olly sings about how society and people try to keep him down because of his sexuality but that in the end he has to push through this shame and find self-acceptance and love if he truly wants to be happy. Best lyric "Tell me I'm broken by design so I can’t find the beauty in my flaws and have some piece of mind." Musically the song is much lighter than the subject matter. In fact it purposefully recalls mid 90s RnB acts like TLC, Montell Jordan and Mark Morrison. Like a lot of music to come out of #20GayTeen the song itself is fun and buoyant but the subject matter of the lyrics is powerful & moving and it's challenging the notions of what can be discussed in pop music as a whole.
06. Ties
I LOVE the production on this one. Right from the start the production on this song has my full attention and it never lets ago. I love production that isn’t afraid to be dense and overpowering and Ties definitely has that in spades. I was really happy they performed this one live when I saw them in D.C.
05. All For You
Just like Bright Light Bright Light I first heard Years & Years on Spotify's Out Now playlist and they grabbed me immediately with this song. It’s catchy and my friend Andrew said it sounds like Erasure but somehow even gayer. This song seems to be about Olly dumping another man cause that man still carries a lot of internalized shame for being gay. As gays we need to dump internalized homophobia for good because it’s only benefitting our enemies.
04. Shine
Shine is one of those slow burns where it took a while for me to really love it though I think hearing it live really put it over the top for me. Also before the show when I was waiting in the alleyway there was a boy who was talking about how he got into Years & Years because of this song which gave him goosebumps and made a deep impact on him emotionally. The bridge in this song which occurs around the 2:48 mark is the real ace in the hole that cements the quality of Shine. For me it’s the best Shine since Collective Soul.
03. If You're Over Me
If You’re Over Me is an insidiously catchy pop song that will run laps through your head once you let it in. It also does a good job portraying the messy end of relationships when you're not sure if you are broken up or not due to the other person giving you mixed signals and conflicting behavior around you and your circle of friends. The music video continues the Sci-Fi dystopian future Sanctify began but really like that video it's all about Olly and not the plot. Here we see Olly leading a cabaret show where he commands the stage and audience's attention by owning his queerness through his dancing, body language, fashion and all around charisma. Olly is a treasure :).
02. Sanctify
Like many songs from #20GayTeen Sanctify touches upon a subject that is commonplace for gay man in 2018 and yet is only now being sung about in the context of pop music. The song details a night when Olly was going to hook up with another man but when Olly met his date that man started to get cold feet and said things like "I've never done anything like this before" and "I'm not really gay." Olly's response to this in the song is classic "You don't have to be straight with me I see what's underneath your mask. I'm a man like you I breathe the richness of the dancer's dance." As sung by Olly it feels like an act of defiance and self acceptance that is incredibly empowering. There's a reason why everyone sang that line at the top of their lungs (myself included) when I saw Years & Years live in D.C. at the Lincoln Theater. The music video meanwhile is a bit weird as it depicts a dsytopian sci-fi future run by robots with humans being an endangered species. What's important about the video though is how Olly is owning his Queerness throughout and that chair dance routine he does at the end WOW! I am living for the chair dance routine!
01. King
King was a huge #1 smash in the U.K. that turned Years & Years into superstars overnight and made Olly Alexander a gay icon for this generation. It’s one of the best pop songs of the decade with a hook to die for. I am a sucker for drawing out vowels in songs for a hook and this one has a doozy! Like the best pop songs it’s a sugar rush from start to finish that will get your toes tapping and hips shaking. I honestly can’t get enough of this song and everyone I introduce it to who enjoys pop music loves this song before it even finishes playing. As of right now this is the crown jewel in Years & Years crown but here’s hoping they got more music up their sleeve that can top this in the future. Olly said the next era is going to be the best yet and I believe him! Until that next era comes turn up King and dance your worries away.
