A week before the July 6 release of their highly anticipated forthcoming album "Palo Santo" (Interscope Records), Years & Years have announced they will be bringing their Palo Santo Parties to North American shores for three very special headlining tour dates in June.
Kicking things off in Brooklyn, NYC on June 24 at Brooklyn Steel, the British trio will then be venturing west to San Francisco's Regency Ballroom on June 27, then to Los Angeles, to perform at The
Belasco Theatre on June 28. Tickets are available on pre-sale from today, to register and get more details go to: https://yearsandyears.com
Earlier this month, the band released their official single "If You're Over Me," as well as the official music video to accompany. Watch the official video for 'If You're Over Me" HERE.
If You're Over Me" follows the British trio's critically acclaimed teaser track "Sanctify," which dropped earlier this year and provides a window into the unique world of "Palo Santo," though its euphoric melodies and effortlessly infectious refrain conceals a more melancholic, universal truth (as Olly explains). "This is a song about trying to stay friends with an ex. Spoiler alert - it doesn't often work. In fact, in my experience, the relationship often ends up ruined. 'If You're Over Me' is about the emotional torture that ensues - meeting up and making out, then breaking up all over again, then making out some more."
Always a band intuitively connected to great, homespun British pop classicism, "If You're Over Me" - and forthcoming second album "Palo Santo" - announces Years & Years' ascension to the world stage. At the core of it all is Olly Alexander, a once-in-a-generation front-man who understands more than most his responsibility as a pop star. His personal leap forward in scope and ambition is reflected in the album's colorful mix of collaborators, which range from Kid Harpoon, Greg Kurstin,
Julia Michaels and
Justin Tranter to Steve Mac, Jessie Shatkin and Sarah Hudson. On "Palo Santo," Years & Years' impact on pop feels truly tribal, one in which the minority is always the majority, and everyone is welcome.
Having teased fans for months, the bold concept behind Years & Years' second album is further explored in the upcoming short film directed by Fred Rowson and starring Olly Alexander, Judi Dench and cult Thai actor Vithaya Pansringarm amongst others. The record takes its name from a sacred wood but, in the densely woven fictional backstory of the music video and short film, Palo Santo has also become a city on a distant planet, on which human beings are a rare commodity, worshipped and idolized by an android society. Olly, along with the final humans, is recruited to perform in a series of bizarre erotic cabarets, for an artificial master known only as The Showman.
Part full-blooded, escapist fantasia and part social comment, for Years & Years this is about outlier pop as futurism once more, offering solutions when the wider world is transforming beyond recognition. With Olly drawing as much inspiration from cult sci-fi as the multi-sensory pop of Prince, Bowie or Gaga, in "Palo Santo" Years & Years have created the perfect space in which to tell their most intimate, personal stories; on identity, sexuality, performance, and ultimately, what it means to be human. Watch the trailerHERE.
"Palo Santo" follows Years & Years' debut album "Communion," which debuted in the Billboard 200, reached Number 1 in US Billboard Dance/Electronic Album Charts, Top 10 in the Billboard Digital Album Charts, and Number 1 in the UK Album Charts, where they sold more than 1.5 million copies and were nominated for 5 BRIT Awards.
Earlier this year, the British trio made a welcomed and surprise return with their critically acclaimed track "Sanctify." The official video became the #1 most trending video on YouTube upon release, surpassing 6 million views, and has had the likes of TIME Magazine hailing them as the "masters of synth pop," and GQ Magazine noting "just when you think you have (Years & Years) figured out, they take you to a deeper place than you thought pop music could go."
