TROYE SIVAN - In A Dream

Troye Sivan is back, the former YouTuber who charmed the Lgbt community across half the world with his music, before setting his sights on crossing over to the mainstream.

If his debut album "Blue Neighbourhood", which sold over a million copies worldwide, gave the impression that this mission was achievable, the follow-up, "Bloom", saw his momentum slow, at least in the English-speaking market, reducing him to the status of a midstream artist with a very solid cult following.

He has, however, remained firmly in the spotlight in Southeast Asia, across the Philippines, Singapore and the more urbanized parts of Indonesia, regions where young people are now obsessed with Western culture (it will be interesting to see how this plays out socially once today's youth have grown up, and whether the traditionalism of previous generations manages to reabsorb them).

This might not be a coincidence: it's the region of the world that produces by far the most television series with gay themes, achieving significant viewership and online buzz.

Either way, Sivan seems thoroughly relaxed, and with some fifteen million monthly listeners on Spotify to his name, he can afford the luxury of releasing an Ep with no promotional campaign whatsoever and sounds more refined than ever compared to the average of today's radio-friendly pop. After all, he's already achieved notable results, and he can rightly consider it more important to preserve his artistic integrity than to make a run at the charts that might come at who knows what cost.

"In A Dream" was released on CD and via streaming on August 21st, with a six-track lineup. The two versions differ, however, in their bonus track: the seventh track on the CD is a stripped-down reworking of the opening song, while for the digital version, as of October 30th, a previously unreleased track was added instead.

The record is steeped in a deep underlying melancholy, an element that has always been present in Sivan's music, albeit with the occasional track breaking up the flow. This time, though, there are no digressions, and it's probably for the best: since this is a fairly short work, it makes sense to focus on atmospheric consistency, while a certain eclecticism is still provided by the arrangements, courtesy of Swedish producer Oscar Görres (an already well-established producer, though perhaps never as free to experiment as he is on Sivan's records).

We go from “Take Yourself Home” (a tender electropop ballad with acoustic guitar that spills into a finale with a distorted beat, mixed at a deliberately invasive volume) to “Easy” (a mid-tempo track, layers of ambient keyboards and an arrangement one step away from synthwave), from “Could Cry Just Thinkin About You” (a dream-pop sketch under a minute long) to “Stud” (a club anthem with deep house influences).

The ballad “Rager Teenager!” closes things out, with particularly saturated keyboard tones, along with the title track, a triumph of adolescent electronic pop that vaguely recalls France's M83.

The CD thus includes, as already mentioned, a successful stripped version of “Take Yourself Home”, while streaming services can boast the acoustic “10/10”, capable of a certain intensity despite sounding like a demo.

The lyrics are the usual fare Sivan has accustomed his followers to: romantic reflections, diary entries on his own moods, and gay manifestos that have no fear of being explicit (think of “Stud”, essentially a declaration of attraction – and at the same time envy – for the body of a ripped guy).

While we wait for a new album, this EP breaks the silence, revealing an artist now in full command of his craft.

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29/11/2020