I assume it's down to the artist and making time to sign stuff.
Olly Alexander - Polari
- Thread starter computer boy
- Start date
Night Call went to number 1!??
This album is pretty terrible. I’ve loved all of the previous ones so I don’t know what isn’t clicking for me.
he/him
dddd everything sometimes is a little like...... drama department?
The repetitive, dressed-down aesthetic worked for Years & Years when they were framed as a band and that's just something bands /did/ but as a solo act he has struggled a bit in defining a visual identity, let alone doing so with a specific taste level.
Like I get the album theme is - for some reason - aquatic and pirate themed but he looks like he's starring in a play about gay earth mages hiding on a pirate ship in the 1800s:
And then it's hard to understand those shots and their connection to other parts of the album shoot:
The rougher '80s gay street walker' aesthetic in things like the videos for Worship and When We Kiss worked probably the strongest out of the different shades of things he's tried.
The huge contrast of the tour aesthetic for Night Call versus its awful cover is still so... ??? ddd.
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Agreed on the aesthetics for Olly have been all over the place and not visually great. It's jarring with the music, in that it doesn't work.dddd everything sometimes is a little like...... drama department?
The repetitive, dressed-down aesthetic worked for Years & Years when they were framed as a band and that's just something bands /did/ but as a solo act he has struggled a bit in defining a visual identity, let alone doing so with a specific taste level.
Like I get the album theme is - for some reason - aquatic and pirate themed but he looks like he's starring in a play about gay earth mages hiding on a pirate ship in the 1800s:
And then it's hard to understand those shots and their connection to other parts of the album shoot:
The rougher '80s gay street walker' aesthetic in things like the videos for Worship and When We Kiss worked probably the strongest out of the different shades of things he's tried.
The huge contrast of the tour aesthetic for Night Call versus its awful cover is still so... ??? ddd.
I can't remember where he said it but he did confirm the theme was gay pirate. I don't know why. I would have gone for something more chic, possibly greyscale, clean lines, simple styling and incorporate his usual aesthetic more with references like adding leather, etc sparingly. The constant aquatic visuals makes me think of Sam Smith with the sailor imagery like where did it come from and why is it so forced dd they both need direction.
With that being said I really love this album, which is the only reason why I even care about the slightly botched visuals.
With that being said I really love this album, which is the only reason why I even care about the slightly botched visuals.
I think the album is, at best, fine. I think what it does best is cater extremely to a crowd who were going to be convinced by the sheer nature of the work anyway. I think it's also just... too late for just fine when he can't get a stage name right, can't get a hit, and torpedoed what was left of his credibility with crashing out of Eurovision last year, a gig he probably regrets taking.
I do feel sorry for him. I feel like he has constantly been torn between trying to be big and just trying to constantly make the big gay sci-fi-fantasy-concept-epic that he's had in his head since he was a kid, so we end up with what feels like four albums styled like a community theatre Hunger Games run full of material desperately courting Capital FM plays. This album shows that that ship seems to finally be turning, but yeah, I just don't think enough people care now. Including me. He needs to do what he wants unbidden from now on and maybe accept the level he's at for the time being. He'll be fine. He's hardly struggling.
I do feel sorry for him. I feel like he has constantly been torn between trying to be big and just trying to constantly make the big gay sci-fi-fantasy-concept-epic that he's had in his head since he was a kid, so we end up with what feels like four albums styled like a community theatre Hunger Games run full of material desperately courting Capital FM plays. This album shows that that ship seems to finally be turning, but yeah, I just don't think enough people care now. Including me. He needs to do what he wants unbidden from now on and maybe accept the level he's at for the time being. He'll be fine. He's hardly struggling.
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Banquet haven't shipped my signed vinyl either. Annoying!
Approximately how many units gets you to No. 17 now?
I wonder if his unrelenting ...niceness means that whenever a member of his team suggests some random aesthetic he just agrees to it, and so we see these mish-mashed campaigns of jarring approaches, i.e. Dizzy's eventual staging being nothing like the video or particularly suiting the song.
Happy for him to go exploring gay culture and history, but the reality is that it will fence him in a bit commercially. He needs a hit badly though - I think Sweet Talker was the last?
I wonder if his unrelenting ...niceness means that whenever a member of his team suggests some random aesthetic he just agrees to it, and so we see these mish-mashed campaigns of jarring approaches, i.e. Dizzy's eventual staging being nothing like the video or particularly suiting the song.
Happy for him to go exploring gay culture and history, but the reality is that it will fence him in a bit commercially. He needs a hit badly though - I think Sweet Talker was the last?
It sold around 5,000 units.
His voice was a better fit for the Timberlake-esque R&B stuff of the debut era. Belting choruses are not his strong suit, I agree.
I Know, Archangel, When We Kiss and Whisper in the Waves are honestly the only songs I felt like returning to and playlisting. The rest is nice. Would've loved the intro as a full song especially with my current fixation on pop from 1988.
It reminds me of Sam Sparro's Boombox Eternal album where the idea to explore a very specific sound period is there but it's only sustainable for a handful of songs and the rest is just okay.
It reminds me of Sam Sparro's Boombox Eternal album where the idea to explore a very specific sound period is there but it's only sustainable for a handful of songs and the rest is just okay.
