Album Review: Polari by Olly Alexander

The British singer sounds reinvigorated on his sonically inventive solo debut There is a certain thrill in watching pop stars roll the dice - experimenting with confidence and glee, upending expectations that have formed over their careers. Until recently Olly Alexander has been the frontman of Years & Years, which started life as a distinctive synth-pop outfit and became more and more faceless until it was just Olly and some big songwriters. An unexpected collaboration with Danny L Harle became Dizzy, the UK's criminally underrated 2024 Eurovision entry, and Polari fleshes out that blueprint into a full album.

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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.

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Olly Alexander, the former frontman of electro-pop group Years & Years, is back with ‘Polari’ – an exuberant and effervescent celebration of all things queer-pop. His debut is a continuation of his work with Years & Years and is filled with queer cult club classics. Drawing upon the iconic synth-pop and the crystalline electro-pop sounds of the eighties, it is undoubtedly nostalgic but still feels box fresh.

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