Will Young - Echoes Tour Setlist & Review

Here is the official set list for Will Young's latest tour to promote his newest album 'Echoes'.

1. Come On
2. I Just Want A Lover
3. Hearts On Fire
4. Changes
5. Your Game
6. Light My Fire
7. Safe From Harm
8. Outsider
9. Silent Valentine
10. Losing Myself
11. Personal Thunder
12. Who Am I
13. You And I
14. Switch It On
15. Leave Right Now
16. Running Up That Hill
17. Evergreen
18. Jealousy

Halfway through this excellent gig, the ceiling above Will Young opened, releasing a spray of heart-shaped confetti that covered the singer. It was an image redolent of his victory in the inaugural Pop Idol competition in 2002. But Young has long since shaken off the tag of reality-TV product. As this performance proved, a decade into his career, he has developed into one of pop’s most admirable assets. Better still, the best could be yet to come.

Young’s set was heavy with the atmospheric electro-pop from his latest chart-topping album, Echoes (released in August), a brave sideways shuffle in style away from his staple soul-inflected pop – perhaps ushering in his “experimental” phase. The new songs held up well in a live setting, driven by taut, melodic synth lines and grooving bass hooks.

Dressed head to toe in black, Young seemed relaxed and confident in the new sound, while his controlled, pitch-perfect quiver eased comfortably into third gear. It was sedate but impressive, prioritising rhythm and mood, and felt well suited to the intimate stage at the O2 Empire.

Perhaps it veered towards being too smooth and laid-back: only when Young began playing older hits was there a reminder of his incendiary singing ability. He revelled in the frenzied stop-start drama of blue-eyed gospel-soul hit Your Game, delivering a devastating vocal — which flitted between sultry and impetuous — and climbing a drum rack before hurling himself to the floor at the song’s violent conclusion.

Elsewhere, Young refused to disavow his route to stardom, returning with poise to the lounge-jazz cover of the Doors’ Light My Fire that he’d first sung on reaching the final 50 of Pop Idol. More surprising was the inclusion of Evergreen, the Westlife cover released as his first single, which was reimagined as a pulsing, hypnagogic sketch, dovetailing neatly with the work from Echoes.