Fans of Australian singer-songwriter Troye Sivan who have been there from the start will have seen the evolution of an artist, from the early YouTube videos to the early Eps June Haverly and TRXYE. The trilogy of videos from his debut long player Blue Neighbourhood as well as his coming out video have made him an LGBT icon. The second album, 2018’s Bloom showed a much more mature outlook to life. Since the last album we’ve seen Sivan featuring in a few collabs with other artists (including Charli XCX, Allie X, Jonsi and Lauv, as well as playing a teenager in a gay conversion camp in Joel Edgerton movie Boy Erased.
2020 sees the release of a brand new six track EP, In a Dream. Perfectly titled as it takes the mellow dream -pop that Sivan does best, but mixes with some darker themes and beats. The first track was released at the start of lockdown, appropriately titled Take Yourself Home. It’s this first single that also opens the EP. In many ways, it’s classic Sivan, displaying his usual thoughtful melancholy. The lyrics ‘if we’re going to die, let’s die somewhere pretty,’ takes us back to the mournful tones of Talk Me Down from his debut.
Could cry just thinkin about you, is a mellow little interlude halfway through, which at just fifty-two seconds is much shorter than you’d hope on first listen and could well have made a beautiful full length track.
There are so many incredible LGBTQ artists making their way up through the ranks, but with this new EP, Sivan remains just as relevant and top of his game. Despite his tendency for the chilled out spund, this EP shows an artist still as able to smash out a catchy, well produced pop song as on previous work such as for him, or My My My. Never more so than on the title track, In a Dream.
Rager Teenager! is a modern day teen anthem (as he sings I just wanna fuck shit up and just ride) and stand out track, both lyrically and for its stellar production.
STUD displays a new level of confidence of confidence not previously seen, wearing his sexuality on his sexuality on his sleeve In a way you couldn’t imagine him doing on Blue Neighbourhood. But to be fair that confidence is shown through all the songs here. In a Dream despite not being the next full length album, represents the best parts from a relevant young artist. The part he plays as a roll model for young LGBTQ people is still as important as ever.
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