Troye Sivan ‘Bloom’: Track By Track Album Review

It’s no secret that here at MTV we’re MASSIVE Troye Sivan stans, so it comes as no surprise that we were incredibly excited when he announced that his sophomore album Bloom would be released on 31st August.

We’ve been counting down the days and release week is FINALLY here. Luckily, we got a sneak preview of the record so we could let you know what you can expect on Friday. Read on for our track-by-track review...

SEVENTEEN

Bloom opens with a frank and honest track about an encounter with an older man that Sivan met on popular dating app Grindr when he was, you guessed it, ‘Seventeen’. This sort of honesty sets a precedent for the rest of the album which is littered with super personal lyrics. Everyone listening to Bloom will have something they can relate to and Sivan’s search for love on ‘Seventeen’ is just one example of this.

MY MY MY!

Back in January we got the first taste of Troye 2.0 and it did not disappoint. Along with a track that is now a staple in the pop canon, we also got an 80s inspired, gloriously queer music video. You’d be lying if you say you haven’t strutted down the street with ‘My My My!’ in your headphones pretending to be an 80s pop star like the one Troye channels in the music video.

THE GOOD SIDE

‘The Good Side’ provides us with the first ballad on the album, and you’re gonna need your tissues for this one. This track was released shortly after ‘My My My!’ and showed everyone a different side to Sivan, one that tugs at your heartstrings while showcasing his honest song writing and the cinematic production he (and his team including co-writer/producer Leland) are capable of.

BLOOM

The album’s title track was one that was long awaited by fans after Troye had been teasing it for months prior to its release. The single is a universal love song AND an allegory for queer sex. Speaking to Popjustice he revealed that ‘lyrically it’s the most subversive queer song on the album.’ The lyric ‘play me like a love song every time is comes on’ will go down as one of the standout moments on the album, we can already hear the crowds shouting it back at Troye at his live shows.

POSTCARD (FT. GORDI)

Next is ‘Postcard’ which is another heartfelt ballad, but this time the lyrics are tinged with anger at an unrequited love. With the repeated line of ‘you didn’t give a f**k’ we hear Troye, once again, giving us an honest, relatable song about love in the 21st century. The production is typically ballad-esque with the ethereal vocals of Australian singer-songwriter Gordi floating beautifully in the background.

DANCE TO THIS (FT. ARIANA GRANDE)

THE. COLLAB. OF. ALL. COLLABS. Need we say more? Troye + Ariana = pop gold, and with an adorable music video to go with it we were spoilt with this heavenly pairing back in June. It’s no secret that the two pop stars are huge fans of each other, you only need to follow them on Twitter to see that they’re constantly lifting each other up and celebrating each other’s work. We love legends supporting legends.

PLUM

Only Troye Sivan could disguise a breakup song in an upbeat, catchy track like ‘Plum’. Sivan has mentioned this track in many interviews as one of his favourites on the album, making the anticipation for its release even bigger. For us it’s a standout track on the album with a chorus that will be stuck in your head for days after listening to it.

WHAT A HEAVENLY WAY TO DIE

‘What A Heavenly Way To Die’ is the slow bop we all need after losing our minds to ‘Plum’ and we’re all sat here wishing Sivan was singing about us. However, the subject is his long-term boyfriend, the American photographer and model, Jacob Bixenman. Their love life is kept pretty private but Sivan has been open about them being in a relationship while cherishing the fact that they keep a lot of their life together to themselves. He told Attitude magazine earlier this year: ‘people know we’re together, people know we’ve been together for ‘X’ amount of time, but they don’t know the ins-and-outs of our relationship: how we talk, how we communicate, and I take comfort in that.” But of course, the lyrics on Bloom shed some light on how IN LOVE they are, and yes, we are sobbing about it.

https://instagram.com/p/BmZV2_NB54R/

LUCKY STRIKE

At this stage we’re almost at the end of Bloom *cries* but the 23-year-old popstar might have penned one of his best love songs yet. ‘Lucky Strike’ is a celebratory pop banger with lyrics like ‘my boy like a queen/unlike one you’ve ever seen’ that you’ll be seeing on everyone’s Instagram captions after Friday. It’s an ode to easy-going love as Troye sings ‘tell me all the ways to love you’ in one of the catchiest chorus’ on the entire record.

ANIMAL

Last but not least is ‘Animal’, the epic and emotional last song he put out before Bloom’s release date. It’s not your average pop song, it’s a sweeping 5-minute confession of love oozing with feeling, and sonically unlike anything we’re heard from Sivan previously. The latter half of the track wouldn’t look out of place on Frank Ocean’s Blonde, from the cassette tape sound effect to the roomy reverb on Troye’s vocal, he’s clearly taken influence from one of the best.

Bloom is released on 31st August on EMI Australia, Capitol.