New York, NY (Top40 Charts) "Last Night an
Angel Saved My Life" could be the twist-on-a-classic title of this new single from UK pop trailblazer Olly
Alexander who has today shared another cut from his forthcoming new album 'Polari', due February 7th 2025.
"Archangel" sees Olly look back at a magical and life affirming moment when he felt saved by the love and care of a companion and follows emotive lead single 'Cupid's Bow' and more recently the album's punchy title track and opener 'Polari'. This third offering, also created alongside pop maestro
Danny L Harle, is awash with 80's synths and drum patterns reminiscent of Olly's pop heroes of the same era - warm, euphoric production shines over a pulsating beat that you can't help dance to.
On the single Olly shares, "This is a song about how an angel saved me at my darkest moment, I don't mean a mythical angel (or do I?) but rather someone in my life who picked me up when I was down. I'm really grateful to him, and to all the other angels (divine and non divine) who I've encountered along the way. I loved making this song with my musical partner
Danny L Harle, our goal was to create something that sounded eternally optimistic, redemptive and like anything is possible. This is such a special song for me and I'm really happy to be putting it out and to show another side to Polari."
Across the new album Olly explores themes of desire, intimacy, voyeurism and fate all wrapped up in a pounding club soundscape. Polari was crafted alongside writer and producer
Danny L Harle and is a pop album for the ages. Olly Alexander's first album under his own name takes as its primary inspiration the (almost) lost art of Polari. Originating around
Europe and the Romani community as early as the 1600s, this coded slang became in effect a secret language for homosexuals and the stigmatized during the twentieth century. It's a concept Olly first came across when coming out, and resonated more deeply with when playing Richie in 'It's A Sin', where he grappled with questions about identity, self-expression and community. The kinds of which have always populated British life, and have long been threaded through the history of pop music - you just had to know where to look.
After a decade releasing music as Years & Years, Polari is literally Olly
Alexander talking the talk. He bonded with
Danny L Harle over a mutual love of 80s club music, that period of uncompromising, avant-garde pop which nonetheless snuck into the mainstream. Polari remained a north star throughout the creative process, a language likewise lacking widespread recognition but still influential in plain sight (see such colloquialisms as "drag", "naff" and "trade"). The album arrives alongside audio-visual world-building in which Olly is in complete control, from its anarchic Derek Jarman-inspired aesthetic to Olly even writing a short play accompanying its release, full of cowboys, gods, and the occasional music industry exec. And after a long history of secrets and subtext, Polari is ultimately an open and universal pop record about those needs that transcend time, sexuality, and self: what it means to belong, to be loved, and (Polari literally translates as "to talk") to connect.
The landmark project will hit the road next year across the UK and
Europe with the special intimate, Up Close and Polari tour for
Spring 2025.
Entering a brand new solo era, Olly Alexander's influence on pop culture shines bright. As Years & Years, Olly scored 2 #1 UK albums, 10 UK Top 40 singles and was awarded the BRIT Billion Award with 6.5 billion streams globally. He was nominated for Leading Actor at the 2022 BAFTA Television Awards for his role in the hit show 'It's A Sin', which brought the fight against HIV/Aids back into public conversation and challenged perceptions of queer life for good. In 2024 Olly fulfilled a childhood fantasy of representing the UK in the Eurovision Song Contest, flying the flag as only he could in the first preview of Polari, 'Dizzy'. He also returned to the stage this month with a role in the internationally-acclaimed experimental drama 'White Rabbit Red Rabbit', following a rotating cast that includes the likes of Michael Sheen,
Minnie Driver and
Daisy Edgar-Jones. Having headlined arenas and festivals worldwide - not to mention collaborating with Elton John, Kylie and
Pet Shop Boys - it's an icon-status that even saw him immortalised at
Madame Tussauds London. Polari, the album, is set for release in February 2025.
Polari Tracklisting:
1. "Polari"
2. "Cupid's Bow"
3. "
I Know"
4. "
Shadow Of Love"
5. "Make Me A Man"
6. "Dizzy"
7. "Archangel"
8. "Miss You So Much"
9. "When We Kiss"
10. "
Whisper"
11. "
Beautiful"
12. "Heal You"
13. "
Language"
Up Close and Polari Tour UK & Europe
19.03.25 || Luxembourg || den Atelier
20.03.25 || Frankfurt || Zoom
21.03.25 || Cologne || Live
Music Hall
23.03.25 || Paris || La Cigale
24.03.25 || Brussels || Cirque Royal
26.03.25 || Berlin || Metropol
27.03.25 || Warsaw || Palladium
29.03.25 || Zurich || Komplex 457
30.03.25 || Utrecht || TivoliVredenburg
01.04.25 || Dublin || 3Olympia Theatre
02.04.25 || Birmingham || Town Hall
03.04.25 || Glasgow || Glasgow Barrowland Ballroom
04.04.25 || Manchester || Manchester Factory International, Aviva Studios
06.04.25 || Bristol || Bristol Beacon
07.04.25 || London || The London Palladium
