Years & Years return from their hiatus with an unapologetic, BDSM-referencing dance track - review

The gold collar clicks open: a loaded look passes between captor and captive. Olly is free. The new era begins.

Years & Years return from their hiatus with new single “Sanctify”, and it delivers what the title promises; a religious experience. But there’s no God in this BDSM-inspired video - Alexander is worshipping at the altar of queerness.

When Years & Years first burst onto the scene with their addictive synth pop sound, gay fans rallied around the band's t-shirt wearing boy-next-door lead singer. Since then, Alexander has taken up the mantle of gay icon with increasing seriousness. The t-shirts have evolved and the queer aesthetics have been elevated.

As he teasingly unzips his high-fashion camo ensemble in the Sanctify video, we are immersed in the futuristic world of his and Fred Rowson's creation. It’s vibrant and theatrical (as it needs to be to satisfy the gays in the post-Gaga, Drag Race era), his red hair harking back to Cher and Bowie.

The narrative of the video hints at many things - the isolation of being a queer person in the Trump era; and the increasing preciousness of art and performance in such a world. If Trump-era art can be divided into one of two categories, socially conscious or escapist, this is more the latter - but still touches on those conscious elements. It acknowledges the desolation of the world while dancing through it.

"Sanctify" is a song about locking yourself in your bedroom with your lover, or going to the club and hunting for passion. It is unapologetically gay: “You don’t have to be straight with me… I’m a man like you,” promises Alexander. Though it’s a little too clean to really embody BDSM culture, it delivers a prettified iteration of it, winking very deliberately at the queer community with the line: “Sanctify my body with pain”.

This is ultimately a single about redemption in dark times, even suggesting that the pain we feel now is part of the glory (“Maybe it’s heavenly”). It even suggests we might be able to turn the pain into pleasure - maybe a world where we feel shackled is the perfect place to get into some bondage! The chorus, like all Y&Y songs, catches like a cold: The bright electro beats reassure us, Alexander’s lyrics simultaneously managing to be danceable yet profound.

Alexander is proving himself a force to be reckoned with in the pop world, while delivering a treatise on identity that belongs unquestionably in 2018. This is a song that everyone will dance to - but it is distinctly, wonderfully queer.

Brian O'Flynn is on Twitter @brianxflynn