Olly Alexander - Polari

The debut solo record proper from Years & Years frontman Olly Alexander is unsurprisingly another queer tour-de-force, a continuation of his work on 2022’s ‘Night Call’, officially the sometime trio’s final album. This loose concept record - its namesake a 19th century code language used by gay men - captures an ongoing pastiche of clandestine homosexuality, channelled through an ‘80s Pet Shop Boys, synth-led aesthetic and the crystalline electropop Years & Years made their own. The record showcases vignettes of sexual tension, cruising, closeted ‘DL’ men, yearning, ecstasy, and intimacy. But within the seedy underbelly of this retro vision board (see the sleazy ‘Shadow of Love’), constant splashes of Olly’s previous peppy, metallic alt-pop (the Danny L Harle-produced ‘Archangel’) amalgamate into a timeless, happy-go-lucky patchwork - a dichotomy best represented by the crunchy synthpop-meets-saccharine Steps-y dance of ‘Make Me A Man’.

Aside from the overly-polished, Scandipop-style ‘Dizzy’ (the single which doubled as the United Kingdom’s 2024 nil points Eurovision entry), what’s most interesting about ‘Polari’ is that Olly’s penchant for alternative electronic maximalism - an approach established by his former group - is thankfully not lost: see the avant-garde chamber pop manifesto of its title track; the wiry, jittery ‘MYSM’, with its kazoo-ish bridge; the cartoonish parody of ‘I Know’; or even the head-inthe-clouds love ballad ‘Heal You’, which sits brightly above erratic guttural synths. ‘Polari’ is a feat of punchy alt-pop that embraces the resilient and immortal histories of the queer community, encapsulating Olly Alexander’s alluring, informed artistry as a solo performer.