Following the announcement that Years & Years will now be an Olly Alexander solo project, he’s been given a canvas to further push boundaries about sexuality and gender identity through his music. With a powerful message about equality, love and acceptance behind the previous albums ‘Communion’ and ‘Palo Santo’, this new chapter begins in the same lane but just through a heavier pop-dance lens.
‘Starstruck’ is a straight-up pop song all about love and human connection with an ode to the cosmos thrown in for good measure. Radiating positivity he immediately transports you to the dancefloor to celebrate all of the things that are apart of the foundational makeup of being human. Reflecting on how someone makes you feel every time you are around them, he relates that breathless feeling of butterflies to being starstruck by a celebrity. “I can’t help it, I get starstruck around you. What can I do?” he sings during the anthemic hook.
With a disco influence injected into his clear pop-dance references (think Dua Lipa meets Kylie Minogue), this song is layered and built around the positive feeling it inhabits. It’s immediately punchy and keeps a high energy throughout the full duration.
‘Starstruck’ is a feel-good track through and through, and one that you won’t want to stop listening to as it’s a sparkly first taste of what else to come from this new chapter for ‘Years & Years’.