Years & Years
Communion
(Polydor)
Apart from Haim, The Bravery and Keane, the BBC's annual Sound Of... poll winner tends to be a solo act with major label clout - Jessie J, Ellie Goulding, Adele, Mika, people like that. In other words, this least courageous of lists puts its money on safe bets already groomed for stardom behind the closed doors of music industry boardrooms.
At least Years & Years - a London-based electronica trio who embrace Auto-Tune like a long lost friend and feature Olly Alexander, lead actor in Stuart Murdoch's film God Help The Girl, on vocals - aren't guilty of the retro stylings of some of their poll predecessors. For good or for bad, this genuinely is the Sound Of 2015.
The fact that they can knock out a catchy pop tune (Shine) one minute, a dancefloor filler (Desire) the next, then do a soulful ballad (Eyes Shut) while opening proceedings with glacial dubstep (Foundation) suggests that someone involved is consciously trying to tick all of the relevant chart-friendly boxes (although I'd argue that Clean Bandit, Diplo, Sam Smith and James Blake surpass Years & Years in all their individually relevant areas).
Despite the band's poll-topping status, Communion is no all-time classic; it's pop music of the here-and-now variety and its thin-skinned bubbles will have burst in a couple of years. But as the soundtrack to this year's non-committal summer, it offers intermittent bursts of sunshine.
Alan Morrison
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