Something To Give Each Other

Troye Sivan

By Sophia Goetz

In stark contrast to his freshman and sophomore efforts, Australian pop singer Troye Sivan lets loose with his newer, bolder (and unrepentantly hornier for most of its runtime) third studio album, “Something To Give Each Other”.

The main single from the album, "Rush," was first made available in a two-and-a-half-minute cut that resembles a fast hit of poppers. But the album version of the pulsating club song is a full minute longer, featuring a breakdown that gives Sivan room to breathe and enjoy the afterglow.

In another scene, "One of Your Girls'' shamelessly appropriates the well-worn cliché of queer people lusting for their cisgender counterparts. Sivan expresses what is unsaid, albeit hidden by a Vocoder (yes, I had to Google what that was), with a seductive, tropical groove, acoustic guitars, and kettledrums.

Though there are a few standout tracks, such as "Can't Go Back, Baby," where Sivan's fast-paced vocal sample and vibraphone evoke the nostalgic, dreamy feelings of a past love, “Something to Give Each Other” falls short of the more poignant, introspective moments that dotted “Bloom” and 2015's “Blue Neighbourhood” (and more or less defined my early highschool years). One of Sivan's best songs is "Still Got It," which splits the difference and has some brilliant internal slant rhymes ("I saw you at a party, said 'hello' like an old colleague") as it builds to a skittering electronic finale.

The joyous way in which “Something to Give Each Other” embraces queer pleasure makes up for its lack of poignancy. Sivan jokes on "Rush," saying, "Kiss it when you're done, man, this shit is so much fun/Pocket rocket gun." The title of the record, which appears three times in a row, initially sounds like a sly double entendré, but could also refer to Sivan giving himself permission to pursue pleasure unabashedly.