Olly Alexander has opened up about Years & Years becoming a solo project, saying that “pop was like a dirty word” towards the end of the group’s run as a three-piece.The singer-songwriter/actor sat down with NME for this week’s Big Read cover interview in which he talked about Years & Years‘ 80s-inspired third album ‘Night Call’ (out today, January 21).Following on from 2018’s ‘Palo Santo’, the new record marks the first full-length from Alexander since he parted ways with his former Y&Y bandmates Mikey Goldsworthy and Emre Türkmen.“We could never really agree on what we liked in the music and what direction we wanted to go in, so that made the songwriting process difficult,” the singer told NME of the experience of working as a trio.“It was never lyrics; [Goldsworthy and Türkmen] would never touch lyrics. It was just, like, general direction: how ‘poppy’ something was gonna be.