February LGBTQ music: Olly Alexander’s ‘Polari’ and Venturing’s ‘Ghostholding’

February 2025 music roundup This month, Gay City News reviews the latest albums by gay pop singer Olly Alexander and Venturing, an indie rock project from trans artist Jane Remover. Olly Alexander | “Polari” | Interscope | Feb. 7th Olly Alexander’s decision to name his album “Polari” stakes a claim on a special meaning for his queer audience. Polari is a form of slang, drawn from several sources, used by marginalized subcultures in the UK starting in the 19th century. When homosexuality was illegal, it was a way for gay men to recognize and speak to each other without drawing heterosexuals’ attention. Part of the problem with Alexander’s “Polari” is that it doesn’t hide any secrets. The lyrics are banal, with music designed to reach a wide audience. Danny L. Harle, co-founder of the proto-hyperpop label PC Music, produced and co-wrote the entirety of “Polari.” His touch is audible in the title track. It combines several different genres in an excitingly chaotic manner. Some of the sounds come from the ‘80s: the brief snatches of metallic guitar, short orchestral hits. Yet the way they come together feels fresh. On the rest of “Polari,” Alexander takes a more straightforwardly nostalgic approach. “Shadow of Love” sports metallic drums, but otherwise, it’s rather generic ‘80s dance-pop. The album recycles the same bright, bombastic synthesizer and drum machine sounds, as though it were all recorded with the same keyboard. “Dizzy” should be overwhelmingly euphoric, matching its lyrics about the rush of love, but its bubbling melody is just upbeat. A recurring problem is that Harle’s production uses timbres that tell us how excited the music is without actually achieving it. Alexander sings “temptation was a friend of mine” and “a revolution at last,” but his desire never makes it into the music’s heart. After 2021, his band, Years & Years, became a solo project. Although he continued using their name on their third album, “Night Call,” the other two members had departed by that point. Alexander’s edge vanished with the other members of Years & Years. One of the band’s strengths was its brooding mood, while “Polari” is blandly cheerful. Using a sci-fi allegory, their video “Sanctify” tackled a culture that tolerates LGBTQ people as entertainers but otherwise has no use for us. Alexander’s no longer doing anything nearly as substantial. “Polari” is the musical equivalent of a dull, lonely night at a dance club. Venturing | “Ghostholding” | deadAIR | Feb. 14th Venturing’s music began as an exercise in fiction about the ‘90s, complete with imaginary members Melanie Dizzy and Vonnie Fitz. The “band” is one of Jane Remover’s projects. They've pursued many directions, having named the “dariacore” sub-genre. (It consists of sample-based mash-ups.) While most of their music has been electronic, Venturing are conceived as a rock group. Next month, they'll release their latest album under their own name. (Its first single, “JR JR JR JR,” is digicore.) Venturing’s “Ghostholding” still sounds like one person’s creation on a laptop, not the work of a live band. The album takes its mission more seriously than Venturing’s 2023 “Arizona” ep, which crammed four songs into eight minutes. It also goes further into its stated ‘90s indie rock influences, especially slowcore and shoegaze, than “Arizona.” Reverb is their best ally. “Guesthouse” stretches out their vocals, layering fainter voices underneath like a ghostly chorus. The vocals are mixed to clash rather than harmonize. Many songs only come together as straightforward rock, with loud guitar and drums, in their second half. “Spider” begins with Remover’s guitar, played slowly, on top of indistinct noise and ends in a more cluttered, angry-sounding place. Heavy echoes create a cloudy mood. One note melts into another, and the guitar is used to create noise as much as it plays clean riffs. The indistinct mix suggests half-recalled memories. “Sick relapse” takes this to a furthest extreme. During “No sleep,” the drums play one long, shifting fill rather than settling down for a steady beat. A clanging cowbell keeps the anxiety pulsating. Taken as a whole, “Ghostholding” brings up images of a grey, overcast sky. A certain grayness settles over the album, while the production can get muddy and cluttered. It demonstrates the difficulty of setting up dynamics when one person plays all the instruments. Despite a degree of rhythmic variation, the songs share a similar sonic palette, and a preference for sludgy tempos enhances that. The ones which depart from that, like “No sleep” and “Guesthouse” have the most staying power. Remover’s 2023 album “Census Designated” integrated rock into their sound to better effect.