Troye Sivan’s Still Got It: his triumphant return to pop in Something to Give Each Other
Photo Courtesy: Gordon von Steiner
Troye Sivan has been busy for the last few years: from the “power bottom ballad” ‘Angel Baby’ to countless fashion campaigns, Sivan has kept up with his public appearances. But he hasn’t released a full-length album since 2018’s Bloom. Thankfully, Sivan comes back to what he does best on his long-awaited third album Something to Give Each Other, and it’s his most expansive project yet.
Sivan has come a long way in the music industry. His debut album Blue Neighbourhood (2015) was a nostalgic trip back to the suburbs, whereas Bloom (2018) saw him candidly explore his sexuality. Now that Sivan is older, he moves into sweaty dance floors on his lead single ‘Rush’. The intoxicating tempo, the pulsing bass, the horny exhales of “It’s so good!” make ‘Rush’ an undeniable anthem of sexual confidence. Even the music video takes inspiration from Berlin’s nightlife scene, complete with mesmerizing choreography and glory holes.
Although ‘Rush’ opens the album, Sivan has not made an album for the club. In fact, Something to Give Each Other is quite eclectic and relaxed. The R&B-infused ‘In My Room’, which features vocals in Spanish by Guitarricadelfuente, is about the anxious feeling of crushing on someone until they occupy all of your thoughts.
On ‘Got Me Started’, Sivan combines a UK garage beat with a sample of ‘Shooting Stars’ by the Bag Raiders that literally sends you to space like those viral memes. Sivan has managed to make the album sonically cohesive, whilst offering something fresh and entertaining on each song.
The album is a natural evolution of Sivan’s sound rather than a total reinvention. The house beat on ‘What’s the Time Where You Are’ is reminiscent of ‘STUD’ on his 2021 EP In a Dream, but here Sivan turns the aggressive beat into a warm and welcoming track about missing a long-distance partner.
‘Still Got It’ is a response to ‘The Good Side’ from Bloom, as Sivan realizes his ex still has everything that made him fall head over heels and he builds on past work about passion and regret to arrive at new and raw perspectives.
What's most fascinating about this album is how each song fuses a range of emotions. Sivan manages to find a balance between ecstasy and melancholia on every track. He takes his lyrics literally and dresses in drag while he seduces a shirtless Ross Lynch in the music video for ‘One of Your Girls’. Although the song is a groovy ode to 80s synth-pop, there’s a palpable heartache as Sivan sings to men who use him for sexual experimentation, knowing that his affection will never be taken seriously.
Even the final lines of the album express a duality of emotion: “Starting again when I got all I wanted / Starting to feel a little bit despondent”. Sivan reminds us that freedom can feel lonely sometimes, but there is also something hopeful and beautiful about longing for something more.
Troye Sivan expands on themes of hedonism, regret and connection on Something to Give Each Other, but what exactly do we give each other? Sivan discusses this during an interview with Zane Lowe explaining the video for ‘Got Me Started’: “It was the euphoric moment of that total freedom of realizing you’re completely fine on your own, and that this is not a moment of sadness, but a moment of endless possibilities”.