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 b it is the follow-up to their debut album Communion . After the success of their Communion, the trio felt pressured in making their sophomore 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. 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, it is the group's last album as a trio.