Years and Years Cover The Weeknd's "Earned It", Do "Shine" Acoustically On BBC "Live Lounge": Listen
Only a few months ago British electronica trio Years and Years were on BBC Radio 1’s “Live Lounge” – when they were still promoting the hit single “King” – and now Olly, Mickey and Emre are back but with a different single to plug. This time it’s “Shine”, the fifth single overall from Years and Years’ debut album “Communion”, which arrived only last week in UK stores.
As usual in the “Live Lounge” acoustic show series, the band had to perform two songs. One being the current single they are promoting and the other a cover of a recent radio single by any artist. After doing “Shine”, Years and Years performed their cover choice, which ended up to be…*drum rolls*… The Weeknd’s “Fifty Shades of Grey” soundtrack hit “Earned It”. When asked by the radio show host about whether he had seen the movie or not, Years and Years’ frontman Olly Alexander answered at first “yeah”, but later changed his reply to “no, but I have pre-ordered it” amid laughs. What? It’s a month already since the DVD was released, what was he talking about? If by any chance you were listening to the live stream of the “Live Lounge” today (July 14), did you also get the impression the band were being jerks to the show host? I seriously got that feeling.
Commenting on the performances, I wasn’t impressed by them. Either Olly doesn’t sound live like his studio recordings or he was sick today. And what a random choice for him to cover “Earned It”, huh? Is he a fan of the song or was he forced by BBC Radio 1 to do this song? I honestly felt like he was mocking the way The Weeknd sings with this acoustic version and not being serious.