page_title: Palo Santo (Years & Years album)
section_title: Themes and influences
hierarchical_section_title: Palo Santo (Years & Years album) / Composition / Themes and influences
caption_attribution_description: Español: Palo Santo (Bursera graveolens) Deutsch: Balsambaum (Bursera graveolens)
context_page_description: Palo Santo is the second studio album by the English electronic trio Years & Years, released by Polydor Records on 6 July 2018. Executive produced by the band, it is the follow-up to their debut album Communion. After the success of their Communion, the trio felt pressured in making their succeeding record. Influenced by religion and spirituality, lead singer and principal songwriter Olly Alexander wanted to connect religious transcendence to pop music after perceiving parallels between a church's sense of belonging and gay nightclubs. The trio met with frequent and new collaborators such as Mark Ralph, Greg Kurstin, Steve Mac and Jesse Shatkin to produce most its tracks. It is named after the South American "palo santo", which was commonly used to fend off bad spirits, though Alexander used its name as a dick joke referring to men he knew.
  Palo Santo is a concept album, set in the fictional world of Palo Santo, where traditional rules regarding gender and sexuality do not exist.
context_section_description: Palo Santo draws influence from images of spirituality and religion, also prominent themes in the band's previous work. It was named after the South American-endemic wood palo santo (Bursera graveolens, Spanish for "holy wood"), which was used as an incense by the Incas to cast off bad spirits. Pitchfork contributor Cameron Cook suggested it may have been influenced by the fact that dancing is considered the "devil's work" in most Western theologies, and that there was a thrill in shaking one's "blasphemous hips while invoking the Lord". He also pointed out that to the band's impulse to connect pop music with religious transcendence was a "sacred experience" to Alexander, its principal songwriter. Alexander, who grew up next door to a church, was intrigued by the rituals performed there, such as a decoration of oranges for the Christingle and reciting the Lord's Prayer, despite not believing in organised religion himself. He remarked, "I was so yearning to be a part of something, I think that's why, obviously, religion is really powerful. All the ritualism and symbolism and I'm just really drawn by all of that stuff." He further observed that "traditionally, the church has like very much shut out gay people" and he has tried to subvert it "a little bit". Viewing songwriting as a cathartic and mysterious healing ritual, he noticed "odd parallels between a church's sense of belonging, and the celebratory freedom that exists in a space filled with dancing, thrashing bodies, and filthy, sexy pop". Following his breakup, Alexander read the novel Dancer from the Dance by Andrew Holleran, which portrayed "the club...like a church; a church for gay people to go and dance." This idea inspired the album. He later chose the album's title upon discovering the meaning of "palo santo", which he considered apt as he had met "a lot of guys who think they have some holy wood"; he remarked, "thinking that your dick is holy? I've known guys like that."
  Palo Santo is intended as a concept album. Based around the concept of "post-human failure", it is set in the world of Palo Santo, a futuristic dystopian society populated by human-hunting androids. Alexander opined that he saw that it was his chance to flip society's normal social rules on their head and begin to question ideas such as "What is an android's sexuality?", "What is an android's gender?", and "How would an android experience love?". Pundits also noted its lyrical themes have mainly dealt with "the murky, complicated side" of desire, as well as the connection between religion and carnality, using religious iconography in dealing with themes of sexuality, queerness and guilt. Critics noted the record as primarily consisting of dance-pop and electropop beats influenced by 1990s pop and R&B.
caption: The title of the album is named after the "palo santo" wood (pictured).[7] Endemic to South America, it is mainly used to cast off bad spirits or energy.[6][8]
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