While Sivan’s 2016 Blue Neighbourhood was an ode to his adolescence, his latest Bloom is a celebration of his young adulthood as a gay man. And it is a masterpiece.
Bloom’s singles are a mixture of pop anthems (‘Bloom’, ‘Dance to This’ feat. Ariana Grande) and ballads (‘The Good Side’, ‘Animal’), but the unsung heroes of this album are the unassuming album cuts like ‘Lucky Strike’, ‘Seventeen’ and ‘Plum’.
‘Postcard’ (feat. Gordi) laments a love gone south due to apathy, pairing Sivan’s naturally high vocals with Gordi’s broken rasp; “I sent you a postcard from Tokyo, baby…You didn’t give a fuck.”
Closing track ‘Animal’ is the most heart-wrenching track on Bloom; Sivan is in a new relationship, and the pair are mutually infatuated. A soft piano tune weaves throughout while synths waver in and out Frank Ocean style. Sivan promises, “I’ll die to care for you…and as the days fly by, we’ll be more than getting through.”
Troye Sivan should be as proud of this album as Australia should be of him – that is, extraordinarily so. One of the strongest pop releases of 2018, if not the strongest.
9/10
