Years & Years

"Here, and on the album’s other highlights, the air of mercantile anonymity feels generous rather than cynical, the music as anxious to accommodate its imagined audience as Olly is his lovers, to be the song that made you dance all night even though you can’t remember a word of it now (i.e. to be the best song ever, as One Direction rightly observed). How else could you end up with a song like "Worship": a bright xylophone bounce for the verses, and a chorus that references gospel via diva-house via the Wanted’s "I Found You"? Appropriately, the band sounds too delirious to feel any shame."

<3

Tim, this was lovely.

link?

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/20831-communion/

I'm in love with the good songs.

Liking this album. Oddly all the best songs are the end. That's weird.

i still maintain that all the songs are good

some less so than others...not sure i even see the objections to 'eyes shut' as an outlier, reminds me of when ppl were so bent out of shape that NERD rerecorded the album with "real instruments" even tho several of the songs sounded better/hit harder that way

nb i don't think its 'better' w/ this organic sound per se, just that it's still basically the same song

oh i'm totally into "eyes shut" now

The edit made it seem like I was rejecting the lesser songs more firmly than is the case. There are better and worse songs here but it's a relative thing.

besides which sometimes the worse songs become better over time

for instance i'm finally having a moment with "take shelter"

I really like "Without". Not so keen on "Ties" actually. But the only thing I have on Spotify on my new phone is this album and Sam Hunt's "House Party" and I really NEED to experience this album like that song, like have someone come over, dance around the couch to it and have ~~~FEELS~~~~ between the singy bits.

I'm still not feeling "King" or the back quarter.

link's not working to tim's review?

the album is just a bit too long imo, although i think as the songwriting becomes clearer that might solve it

weird to me that tim was selling this band upthread as being uncool or on-paper terrible bc almost every reference point i think of seems v credible to me (i mean they're basically a proper pop hot chip), except the gigantic fuck-off hooks...i almost wanted to say pet shop boys but there's none of the detachment, it's more idk, erasure or savage garden.

dude's voice is fine enough when it's being swept up and along these delirious synths but is horribly exposed on the sparer/slower songs and as for the bonus acoustic tracks, just noooooo

pfork links always break here, copy and paste the url

it's def Savage Garden.

dude's voice is fine enough when it's being swept up and along these delirious synths but is horribly exposed on the sparer/slower songs and as for the bonus acoustic tracks, just noooooo

this is my problem with the slower material.

idk I think in 2015 being a "proper pop hot chip" is not actually credible slash on paper seems like it would be played out to the point of toxicity?

I mean you could describe a lot of Walk The Moon in precisely the same terms.

i'm unfamiliar w walk the moon but i didn't hear any imagine dragons or sam smith in here, like this

"Mr Brightside (Thin White Duke Mix)" X "Night Air" X "Climax" X "So Good To Me" was an idea whose time had come

which is a LOT more tastemaker-friendly is also more otm. but i agree that there's something about them that doesn't lend itself to that and i think it's the massive open nature of the melodies

I've gotten so that I tear up whenever "Shine" comes around (I've gotta regulate my listening). By the time it gets to the last repetition of “Can you see me I’m shining/And it’s you that I’ve been waiting to find” I'm in bliss (and “I’m following lightning” a few seconds earlier is a beautiful image).

where is the chorus melody of "worship" lifted from? driving me nuts

"take shelter" has emerged as my favourite i think

Yeah I can't really be dealing with the dude's voice, nor the blustery Coldplay type choruses.

would love it a lot more if his voice was less weedy but for the most part it's covered up well. choruses are way camper than coldplay, much more ~pure pop

Yeah but there's something very 10s stadium pop about the choruses that puts me off, I'm trying to put my finger on what it is melodically but it's definitely proliferated since Viva La Vida.

is it m83

m83 have hooks at all?

i'm sticking w savage garden/erasure. the image and sound is very '10s but the melodies are what stick out as different

less the hooks more the "10s stadium pop" vibe

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8fAsYRWiAs

Emre's the cute one imo

"Worship" chorus makes me think of a lot of gay club pop - Deuce's "On The Bible", The Wanted's "I Found You"...

The 10s stadium pop vibe = World Cup soccer anthems via Britney's "Til The World Ends" et. al. also

i like the album a lot but am i the only person who thinks the sequencing is totally out of whack?

yeah it feels kinda random but i think it's just generally too long

"ties" is so good, i do love how flicking around randomly makes certain songs pop out unexpectedly

I caught myself singing the ti-ie-ie part this orning.

*morning

yeah there's definitely a couple tracks that could be cut, but it's still very good overall

OKAY i made an edited tracklist and i think it plays much better than the original. try listening to it and tell me what you think!

foundation
take shelter
king
desire
worship
memo
shine
ties
without
border
real

EDITED OUT: "gold" and "eyes shut"

you may notice this is very similar to their live set which was intentional on my part

this album really clicked for me recently

still have to sort out why beyond the obvious but i really really like "eyes shut"

this is a good performance of it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRLZFmTcOkY

does anyone like the troye sivan album

i like these

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdXNNveYOfU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxg222-hWWc

I suggested retitling the first song "Tepid" in today's Jukebox.

i think "wild" is great... it sounds like the blue nile or something

also i like the part where it sounds like he's singing "too long till i cum in your hands"

btw I love the good songs on the Y&Y album so much. I get "Real" and "Take Shelter" stuck in my head every couple days.

Still trying to understand why everyone hated "eyes shut"

so excited about seeing them tonight

Live show was really good when I saw them last week! They are so shameless in the best way. Ollie Alexander seems so thrilled by their audiences, it's really endearing.

hope Ollie is as drunk as he was reported to be a couple weeks ago.

im really mad i missed them in nyc

FWIW this is what I had to say about it last week.

Olly was either wasted or really naturally hyper

Fuck was he wearing though, socks n shorts beyond hideousness

I love this band so much, actually can't imagine how much they'd have meant to me if they'd been around when I was 22

They covered Toxic! We'd been told a Britney cover would happen, I guessed Born To Make You Happy bc codependency, Grace guessed Hold It Against Me. She should cover Ties though

His voice sounds better live, possibly helps that the audience are fully into singing every line

Their music probs doesn't warrant as much slutdropping as Olly thinks it does

it occurred to me today that sonically this album is kind of like "what if the bieber album were good"