Years & Years, O2 ABC, Glasgow Jonathan Geddes
Two stars
Years & Years seem a nice enough bunch. At one stage of this sold-out show they brought on a girl called Jenny from the Starlight Foundation charity, letting her stay onstage for a song. It was a genuinely sweet moment, and singer Olly Alexander appeared touched by both it and by the wild reception his band generated.
That shouldn’t have shocked him too much, given Years & Years is doing so well a return date for the larger O2 Academy is already booked for spring, while chart success has come freely to the London trio (augmented to a sextet live) this year. It was easy to understand why, given there was big choruses, smooth melodies and ideas seemingly lifted from a modern day pop handbook.
There is a but coming, of course. While some moments held up well, the rousing Shine and skilful power-pop of Border most prominently, the majority of fare took safeness to new heights. These are accomplished pop tunes lacking even the slightest hint of adventure, and it was so polite that when the crowd started the customary “here we f****** go” chant you expected the band to cover their ears.
Material alternated between chart-friendly dance-pop, as on Gold’s mild-mannered EDM and the lacklustre rave-up of Real, and ballads that prove Sam Smith isn’t the only one profiting from drearyness, with both Memo and Without providing predictable yearning. If the crowd was lively the band were not, particularly with some subdued drumming, and it made the hit and miss Scandinavian pop of energetic Swedish support act Tove Styrke seem revelatory in comparison.
Years & Years understand how to construct pop songs, but actual character or identity was not in evidence.
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