Album Of The Week: Troye Sivan — Bloom
This week, for our Album of the Week, Carrie reviews multi-talented YouTuber Troye Sivan’s second album, Bloom. Plenty of YouTubers have ventured into the music scene, with not all experiencing great success. But, is Sivan an exception?
Troye Sivan’s debut album, Blue Neighbourhood, became #6 in Australia’s album chart, and hit #7 in the United States. This YouTuber-turned-musician, clearly popular with the masses, gained notable interest from the very beginning of his musical career. His previous album explored themes of sexuality — the discovery of one’s own — and the subsequent heartbreaks that can follow this discovery. Sivan’s artistic style, found in both his production and music videos, is deeply expressive, and shows that popular music does not necessarily have to be the cookie-cutter style we have come to accept as part of popular culture. So, getting the opportunity to review Sivan’s sophomore album, Bloom, was exciting and intriguing. Before I begin, if I could summarise my thoughts on it, I would say that Bloom is a second musical exploration of sexuality for Sivan, but, also, a triumphant celebration of it.
If you listen to the tracks on Bloom, quite a lot of them involve Sivan’s relationship to sex, and celebrating the passion and ecstasy involved. This theme is the most apparent with the first single, ‘My! My! My!’ — the production and lyrics are charged with sensuality, chemistry, and it feels electric. A similar atmosphere is evoked by the opening track, ‘Seventeen’. The production is immersive, wrapping the listener in Sivan’s memories of coming of age, whilst he also reflects upon the consequences of that time. The highlights of this album are the tracks that follow in the same path as these first two, like his collaboration with Ariana Grande, ‘Dance to This’. Despite lacking the immersive nature of the aforementioned tracks, this song is more fun and lighthearted, and sees Sivan embrace the comfort of spending a quiet night in with his significant other.
The highs and heartbreaks of romance are also a featured theme of the album. ‘Animal’, for example, is an epic, and heavily 80s-inspired track about being utterly devoted to someone, as well as how those feelings can weigh heavily upon that person. Production, again, plays a strong part here, enhancing the mood of the track. Meanwhile, ‘Postcard’, which includes a collaboration with Gordi, is a melancholic song that explores Sivan’s reluctant, unreciprocated feelings towards another. The somewhat distorted piano seems to signify something of the nature of the pairing, and by using it as the basis of the song — rather than the trances and drums of other tracks — the whole thing feels like a classic, self-reflective ballad, whilst the echoing choral harmonies feel hauntingly poignant. The third track, ‘The Good Side’, begins with a transportation to the past, with Sivan regretting the way he behaved after the ending of a relationship. Here, the guitar is lugubrious and understated, allowing Sivan’s bittersweet lyrics — and the haunting harmonies that echo his thoughts — to shine through.
As a whole, the production, combined with Sivan’s lyrics, is stunningly well-thought out. Each track is produced in a manner that beautifully complements the sentiment conveyed by the lyrics, and feels more like a piece of storytelling rather than mere easy-listening. Some of the singles, however, are better produced than others. Tracks like ‘Plum’ and ‘What a Heavenly Way to Die’ feel lacklustre compared to others on the album, and their placement in the track listing (towards the end) leaves the final track, ‘Animal’, feeling anticlimactic.
Though at times, a couple of the songs from Bloom felt superfluous, in its entirety it is a sensual piece of art that embraces passion and celebrates adulthood. The composition of each track is meticulous and beautiful to listen to, with each one seemingly capturing a different emotion. I am very much looking forward to hearing more of Sivan’s work as he continues to grow and improve as an artist, whilst also juggling his pursuits as an actor. Go into this album anticipating its beauty, especially that of its singles, then prepare to enjoy its playfully artistic fun, and you won’t be disappointed.
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