After turning heads with his first single, “Wild,” Troye Sivan has become one of pop music’s newest darlings. His debut album, Blue Neighbourhood, dropped on December 4, 2015 and peaked at the #7 spot on the US Billboard 200 list. Hailing all the way from Australia, Sivan is an accomplished actor, singer/songwriter and Youtuber with almost four million subscribers. And this album clearly demonstrates why. His music has an honest maturity that has become rare in an industry that cares less and less about meaning as long as the money keeps coming in.
Much like Lorde’s Pure Heroine and Halsey’s BADLANDS, Blue Neighbourhood refuses to shy away from the realistic challenges that face young adults growing up in the twenty-first century. With dreamy layers and percussive synth beats, Sivan delivers a beautifully crafted album that is revolutionary in its lyrical statements. In songs like “for him.” and “HEAVEN,” he talks openly about his sexuality and his faith, using the music to express feelings of vulnerability and unsurety. And perhaps that’s what is most charming about this album—it’s ability to be both wise and innocent. Sivan himself is only twenty and yet seems to have already uncovered truths about the world that others spend their whole lives searching for. Blue Neighbourhood is truly a testament to the importance of honest music and insightful lyricism.
Below is a list of my personal favorites based on lyrics, music and overall message. These six songs are my recommendations for anyone looking to try a sample before deciding to go all-in. So, if you’re up for the challenge, put on your headphones and get to listening.
1. BITE
Sivan describes this song as retelling his first experience at gay bar and that innocence comes through very clearly. In the chorus he is begging an unnamed suitor to ‘kiss me on the mouth and set me free / but please don’t bite.’ There is this desire to be freed from a life of denying one’s sexual orientation but there is also this underlying understanding that lust and love have consequences and that those consequences can be painful. Sivan perfectly encapsulates the feelings associated with Red Riding Hood vs. The Wolf variation of falling in lust.
2. COOL
This song is very tongue in cheek and is almost satirical in its analysis of what it means to be “cool.” Sivan talks about the allure of celebrity and about wanting to smoke and drink because all of the popular kids are doing it. However, the line ‘When I’ve got that cigarette smoke / And Saint Laurent coat, but nothing is feeling right / I drink but I choke / I love but I don’t,’ reveals that being cool isn’t necessarily all it’s cracked up to be. It’s a catchy anthem for anyone who’s ever struggled with the desire to be like the cool kids.
3. HEAVEN
HEAVEN is perhaps one of the most beautifully honest songs on the album. Featuring Betty Who, the pair sings about struggling with being openly gay and how it affects their relationship to religion. In the chorus, Sivan discusses the tradeoff of losing himself in exchange for entrance to Heaven and then realizes that if he has to give up something so essential to his being (his sexuality) that maybe he doesn’t want Heaven— and maybe on a deeper level, religion—if it can’t accept him as he is. It’s an incredibly honest song about the civil war that often erupts when our faith doesn’t necessarily correspond with who we’ve become.
4. LOST BOY
As the eleventh song on the album, LOST BOY is brilliant in its admissions. It speaks very eloquently from a place of fearing commitment. He tells his lover that he’s ready to settle into a life of domesticity but then admits that “we’re both too young / to give in forever.” But, he makes his admissions without sounding callous, rather accepting and apologizing for giving his S.O. “the runaround” and building his “hopes up like a tower.” LOST BOY is touching in its acceptance the sometimes we are very bad at loving each other the way we deserve.
5. SUBURBIA
This track very much pays homage to the idea that home is often never the same as it was when you left. There’s “so much history in these streets,” but that history doesn’t keep it from changing because it’s exactly that— history. But, there’s also something about remembering where you came from and wanting to make those people proud. Sivan says, “There’s so much history in my head / the people I’ve left / the ones I’ve kept,” implying that those people are all still with him no matter what. It embodies the idea that we are often the result of the people who’ve shaped us.
6. BLUE
The final song on my list is a beautiful exploration of what it means to love someone. It discusses the willingness to change oneself to preserve a relationship, essentially, as the chorus says, “I want you / I’ll colour me blue / anything it takes to make you stay.” The song also uses a lot of color imagery as metaphors for certain emotions. The blue represents sadness and later in the bridge, Sivan says, “I know you’re seeing black and white,” seemingly stating that he understands his partner is struggling with the sadness represented by the blue. When he says he’s willing to colour himself blue, he means he’s willing to empathize and take on some of that sadness in order to save the relationship.