Gig review: Will Young at The Wardrobe, Leeds
Stripped to the bare bones at this intimate album launch show, there is a resilient magnetism to the one-time megastar that enhances his warmth, wit and marvellous pipes.
“We’ve come on a little early, Leeds” Will Young acknowledges to the punters who are crammed across the club floor of The Wardrobe, nestled at the bottom corner of the city centre. “And I’m in my pyjamas. It’s been a long day.”
Though the days where he regularly troubled the upper echelons of the singles chart are a thing of the past, there is still an element of pinch-me-dreaming disbelief among the few hundred fans craning their necks over each other in the basement of Munro House.
For the first decade of the 21st century, few performers carried the cultural cachet earned by the one-time megastar; fewer still who emerged from the reality television machine transcended its roots to take control of their own iconography like he did.
A full run later this year will see Young travel the country in acoustic formation, visiting some of the nation’s most celebrated theatres and music halls, but even against that yardstick, this is even more up close and personal.
Stripped to the bare bones, he is here behind his ninth solo effort, the Eighties-synth-stroked Light It Up, celebrating its release at this intimate album launch show that pares back its MOR soundscapes in favour of solo keyboard renditions, distilled to their essence.
It’s an approach that speaks to the warmth, wit and marvellous pipes possessed by the ex-Pop Idol victor, as well as his quiet steeliness. Though this hour-long showcase does not stray from light entertainment territory at all – between songs, Young fields questions submitted by those in attendance with a flair for terrific deadpan panache – he still exudes a resilient magnetism.
The reward is some frank performances, gorgeously recast in this setting; Jealousy, arguably his best song, is ethereally brilliant, while the fittingly hued Evergreen builds to a mass-hushed crescendo of voices softly united in unison.
The new material holds its own too, particularly Light It Up, with its Elton John-esque Seventies glam stomp, while a request for a relatively rare performance of Love is a Matter of Distance is honoured to warm murmurings, after Young has briefly disclosed he sent the first song he ever wrote to local favourite Jane McDonald. “They need to bring back Star for a Night,” he chuckles, before a twinkling rendition of Billie Eilish’s new-movie-ballad standard What Was I Made For? wraps proceedings.
Perhaps so, but he clearly doesn’t need it himself.