Album Review: Communion by Years & Years

Date: July 26, 2015

One of this month's (and possibly one of this year's) hottest new releases comes from UK electronic trio Years &Years. The London-founded group includes vocalist Olly Alexander, bassist Mikey Goldsworthy and synth player Emre Turkmen. Years &Years have previously been featured on Electrified in new music with their single "King" and "Sunlight" with The Magician. The band's influences include Diplo, Radiohead and Flying Lotus, which is notable through their unique sound, a cool hybrid of electro pop and '90s style house with R&B. As their 2014 EP 'Take Shelter' and early 2015 EP 'Y &Y' saw releases through Polydor Records, Years &Years became a buzzing new act on the music industry's radar.

'Communion' is the group's debut studio album and was released on July 10^th, the first "New Music Friday" for the music industry, a new standard for releasing music on the same day each week (The US previously did Tuesday releases). The front of the album is incredibly strong, especially from a brand new act. Cold opener "Foundation" is a song that literally gave me the chills. Lead single, "Real", is a slower, R&B leaning song that builds up to make a bold statement. Second single, "Take Shelter", is a mid tempo dance number. Fifth single, "Shine", is more on the upbeat side with a feel-good melody.

The middle of 'Communion' truly happens to be the heart of the album. "Ties" is one of those songs that causes goose bumps, and it's just asking to become a future single. Directly following is fourth single, "King", which I personally feel is the best song released this year so far, across all genres. The track is hypnotic in a way that between the melody, the vocals and the beat, it just grabs your attention and then hooks you in. This is the song that will get people asking, "Who is this?" The single was a #1 hit in Bulgaria, Croatia, Scotland and the UK, as well as peaking at #14 on US Hot Dance/Electronic Songs and #37 on US Mainstream Top 40. As the album progresses, what can follow up "King"? Only "Desire", the album's third single, which went #5 on UK Dance chart, #22 on UK Singles chart and #21 on US Hot Dance/Electronic Songs.

As "Communion" comes to a close, tracks like "Without" and "Border" have an electro-meets-R&B vibe that continue the album's steady amount of lyrical content about love and loss. "Memo", a mesmerizing ballad, concludes the standard album much like the way it opened with "Foundation", bringing the experience full circle. Die hard fans will want to check out the deluxe album, featuring slow jam "1977", the acoustic version of passionate love song "Ready For You", super funky "I Want To Love" (which I think should have made the standard album) and the acoustic version of the album's standout track, "King".

"Communion", and Years &Years as a whole, are just so phenomenal and impressive. They don't know how to put out a bad song. They don't even know how to put out a "so-so" song. Each track is crafted beautifully and professionally without losing any of the raw emotion of Olly's vocals. Their image is also very pleasing to the eye. The music videos mesh well with the album and EP artwork and band logo, which use colorful and geometric letters and a "Y" logo to represent the band. Years &Years is full of creativity, personality and charisma, and let's not forget that this is their debut in the industry! I hope this is only the beginning of the journey for this talented and distinctive group of musicians, and I believe they will stamp their personal brand of electronic music into the hearts of thousands, perhaps millions of listeners.

Please note that the opinions expressed in this review are the opinions of the writer alone. They do not necessarily reflect the opinions of WSOU, Seton Hall University, nor any of its affiliates.

Posted in: Album Review, WSOU Exclusive