Troye Sivan is truly a star of the Internet age. Hailing from Australia, Troye Sivan initially gained popularity as a child-singer, having appeared in Telethons and on the show StarSearch as a kid. He released his debut EP, Dare To Dream, at just 12 years old, with it performing well enough to actually get him a record deal a few years later. When Troye was about 16, he started to upload on Youtube, quickly becoming on of the most popular people on the platform in Australia. This popularity just helped out his music career, and he released his second EP, TRXYE, in 2014, with its single ‘Happy Little Pill’ becoming a top ten hit in Australia. The success of this EP led to him releasing his debut album Blue Neighborhood in 2015. 2018 was a huge year for Troye, with him getting his first starring role in the movie Boy Erased and also with him releasing his second album, Bloom, which was critically acclaimed. Bloom is an emotionally vulnerable piece of work that blends all of the most popular modern trends in Synth-Pop is a very sweet and warm manner. Troye Sivan’s newest EP is In A Dream, which was supported and promoted by the single ‘Easy,’ which came out earlier this year. I am still a big fan of the song ‘Easy’ and listen to it all the time, and it made me very excited to hear this project. With that being said, here is my review of Troye Sivan’s new EP In A Dream. Please let me know what your favorite songs are from this project in the comments below, and also let me know if you agree with this review!
I’m tired of the city, scream if you’re with me. If I’m gonna die, let’s die somewhere pretty ah-ah-ah.. Sad in the summer, city needs a mother. If I’m gonna waste my time, then it’s time to go. Take yourself home...
Troye Sivan immediately throws us into his dark and wonderful dreamland with the first song from this project, ‘Take Yourself Home.’ One thing I really like about Troye’s music is the fact that the synths he usually sings on and his voice create this sort of otherworldly atmosphere. ‘Take Yourself Home’ is a cold yet cozy Synth-Pop cut that is tinted with some funky 80s R&B as well. This instrumental is like a more experimental and futuristic version of the sound that The Weeknd’s After Hours album. ‘Take Yourself Home’ is about Troye and his boyfriend being sick of the city life and just wanting to getaway. They are just done with the chaos and busy nature of the city and want to calm down. The next track, ‘Easy,’ is actually the single that got me excited to hear this project. It is another track that blends futuristic Synth-Pop with 80s Funk music; to me, this one has even more of an 80s influence than the first song from this EP. One thing that is cool and interesting about this song is the contrast between the lyricism and the feeling that the melody and tempo have. Sonically, this song is super warm and encompassing; it almost has a romantic sound to it. On ‘Easy,’ Troye Sivan seems desperate to rekindle a failing relationship with someone he knows makes him better as a person. He has obviously messed up so much in the past that his significant other is drifting away and starting to not be in love with them anymore, and he is trying everything he can to not let it float away. It is really cool to me that the melody and sound of the song reflects what Troye wants the relationship to be, but he knows it will never be the way he wants and needs it to be. The next track, which is only 53 seconds, is a bit of an interlude, or maybe even a bridge into the next section the EP. On ‘could cry just thinking about you,’ over an ambient Pop melody, Troye is singing about having lost the person he was singing about in the previous song. Troye does not know what to do and how to feel on this track; every moment and every person reminds him of his ex. Even though it is not a very long song and is probably not something I would download for my playlist, ‘could cry just thinking about you’ is a necessary piece of emotion that fits perfectly into the story that this project is telling.
After the transition into being single that the last song provided for us, we get ‘STUD,’ which kind of describes the feeling of a young gay man who is recently out of a relationship and trying to get back into the single gay community. Unfortunately, not everything about this community is always necessarily positive, especially if you are into the partying aspects of it. It can be sex obsessive and drug-riddled and a lot of times members are not super positive about the body or self, and sometimes being a young man in this scene can be depressing. ‘STUD’ is a song that starts out super slow and sensual that evolves into a full-on super fun House track. It is almost as much the beginning of the song shows how Troye is actually feeling, and when it picks up it shows that Troye is just trying to force himself to be happy in this situation. It is definitely an interesting and cool track, and it is a highlight from this EP for me. The next song, ‘Rager teenager!,’ is a song that from the lyrics and theme of the song seems like it would be super upbeat and fun and maybe even industrial-sounding; instead, it is a piece of ambient Dream-Pop that becomes super trippy and psychedelic as the song goes on. Sonically, the tone of this song is very large and grand, with Heavenly synths driving the melody and funky guitar and piano riffs sprinkled throughout the song that creates a really interesting and layered texture. On ‘Rager teenager!,’ Troye Sivan is singing to himself; he seems to be trying to justify his crazy and party-filled lifestyle he has gotten into since he broke up with his boyfriend. It seems like in the first song from this project, he was condemning this kind of behavior, but on this song, he is trying to convince himself that it is okay to act this way. The last song on this EP, which is also the title track, has a completely different sonic tone to it from the rest of the project; that is completely okay, though, because the sound of ‘In A Dream’ matches up with the lyrical sentiment of the song so well(as with most of the other tracks on this EP). ‘In A Dream’ has a sort of an 2000s Emo/Pop Punk sound to it. This song reminds me a lot of the Alternative Pop-Rock music that was popular in the early 2010s. If you are into artists like Phoenix, Neon Trees, or Hot Chelle Rae, this is a song you will like. On ‘In A Dream,’ Troye is singing about how he can not seem to get away from his ex and the bad feelings he has as much as he wants to, because not this ex is appearing in his dreams. No matter how many other partners he has and how much partying he does to make the pain go away when he closes his eyes he still sees his ex.
On Troye Sivan’s new EP In A Dream, he is telling a story of being in love with someone, breaking up with them, then unsuccessfully trying to find ways to try to get over this ex. This is a story that pretty much all of us know, and it is interesting to hear it told from Troye’s perspective. As most young people would do, he just tries to party until the pain goes away, and from the end of the project, it is apparent that this is not working at all. On this EP, Troye Sivan proves that he is a very diverse musician, with him embracing ambient pop, old school Funky R&B, futuristic Synth-Pop, and 2000s Alternative music. There really is something for everyone on this project. In A Dream is a project that showcases Troye’s abilities as a storyteller and music artist, and I can not wait to see what he does next.
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