"Up in Flames " by Years & Years, Wednesday, January 27, 2021
If x then happiness. Find x. Simple algebra. What is the one thing you want for life or for the moment? How do you get it? That's the problem. I can think about some times in my life when I thought everything was coming together only for it all to fall apart. There was this awesome housing situation in college until my roommate called to say that he wasn't coming back next year. Or establishing the "dream team" at two of my schools. Spoiler alert: it never lasts, and new drama comes up to make the dream team more of a nightmare. If only I had that promotion. If only I bought X. If only that person was available. X-Y= happiness. But what happens when it doesn't happen? What happens when the exact opposite happens. You don't get the promotion. Maybe you get fired. They get married rather than breaking up. The relationship turns abusive or maybe hidden infidelity. What happens next? That's what this synth-pop single by Years & Years deals with.
I DREAMED OF A LIFE SO BIG AND TALL. Robert Burns wrote in "To a Mouse": "Best laid schemes o[f] mice an[d] men [go oft awry]." On a very superficial level, I chose this song at 4 a.m. this morning. It turns out my day would be completely ruined by not being able to get to sleep until 5. It's not the worst because it's my vacation, but it made me start thinking about all the times when my plans didn't work out. Of course, a sleepless night due to coffee isn't the worst thing I've been through nor does it give proper respect to whatever meaning lyricist and singer Olly Alexander intended. We're coming off the heels of the most unexpected year of our lifetime. We've had years (and years) of unexpected political craziness. Things that we grew up telling ourselves would always be true could be unraveled in 280 characters. The future will be rearranged.
WEAKNESS WON'T BE YOUR SAVIOR. Years & Years is a group I've gotten into gradually. I found Alexander's usage of religious imagery in much of the band's songs interesting. Themes of longing for connection, gender/queerness, and ritual permeate around the sounds of synths and a grooving beat. Alexander certainly isn't the first openly gay musician to hit the radio, but most singers don't use same-sex pronouns in their music as do Years & Years. What I've found when listening to the band is that it takes a while for their songs to hit me, but when they do each song becomes a transformative experience both musically and lyrically. Today's song seems to be about the divorce of parents, but it could also be about falling in love with someone who is in a relationship waiting for the other relationship to end. The video is also ambiguous. Is it a love triangle between two men and a woman? Is it a New Order-styled The Shining? I'd have to spend more time with the song.
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