Album Review: Years & Years Put Some “Palo Santo” On Your Love Life

If you did not know, Palo Santo is a huge part of the Latino Community. Similar to sage, its sweet scent is used to ward off negative energy, but if you are whipping out the palo santo, it means you have a really pesky, dark thought upon you. Yes, negative energy is not simply spiritual, but it is also the thought you carry, which is why Years & Years new album, Palo Santo, clears away how you play into your heartbreak.

I’ll admit it; sometimes, I go for the ones I know are not meant for me to love. It seems Olly Alexander is guilty of the same vice because he wails on tracks like “Sanctify”, “Karma”, and “Preacher”. Each song has a baseline that seems religious; like a bunch of hands and feet clapping and stomping to his sermons. This is perfect because Olly has has a voice that balances the rawness of desire; whether it is someone to have fun with, “Hallelujah,” or someone who blatantly denies our love only to still come over, “If You’re Over Me.” Yet, both show something interesting that we do for love: we let others decide whether they want us.
Years & Years – If You’re Over Me (Official video)

From the seductive, trop-R&B rhythms of “Lucky Escape” to the tender pleas of “Hypnotised,” Olly feels quietly broken under rhythms that can go from piano whimpers to legitimate radio bops. Frankly, I love songs that leave me mentally torn between physically dancing to their pop anthems and sitting down to analyze what their lyrics might tell me about myself. While Palo Santo, in reality and record, will be used ward away the “heebie jeebies” of love, there is something to say about your own role in attracting dark love. By the time Years & Years record lands on its final track, “Here,” another love has waned away despite earlier Olly’s singing to being “All For You.” Why? Because though we want love to make us feel alive, nobody fulfills another person. Hence, you should never confuse wanting to love for wanting to be wanted.
Years & Years – Sanctify (Official Video)

Palo Santo plays like an album for the high passions and low heartbreaks of a relationship while, simultaneously, feeling like a “creme de la creme” mix for a major club scene. There is no denying you will move, but if you sit and listen to Olly’s voice you find a partner in someone that chooses to be enlivened by partners unmeant to last. Something, we all, at least once, are guilty of in the search for love. For More Information On Years & Years And To Buy Palo Santo On July 6 Click Here.
Years & Years – All For You (PSEN Televisual Exclusive)