Australian YouTube star and breathtaking singer-songwriter Troye Sivan has delivered yet again with WILD, his latest EP. This EP reveals a very different approach to music in comparison with his last offering, TRXYE, but with the tell-tale signature signs of a Sivan classic. There’s a more developed sound here, revealing the growth of someone who knows what sound he wants to achieve and also knows how to get there. This 20-year-old is certainly far more sure of himself and what he’s doing than the one writing this! On my initial listen I preferred the subtle lyrical qualities of his previous EP, but as I suspected, WILD has seriously grown on me.
The emotion in this record is clear from the offset. This is what separates Troye from other pop wannabes who may also try to do this sort of thing on the side of another career. You can tell that he loves it, he means it - more than that, he needs it. Troye has the power to create truly expressive, heartbreaking songs, with lyrics like ‘distance makes the heart grow fonder, said by someone stronger than me, so what do I do now?’, in the devastating DKLA. This feeling resonates most successfully in THE QUIET. Sometimes swearing on a song can sound gratuitous, but here it just doesn’t. Troye makes it work as he passionately declares ‘I’d rather be spitting blood, than have the silence f*** me up’ and ‘I used to be the one you’d come to when it’d all go to sh**’. This is the most heart-wrenching of the songs; as he sings the line ‘Anything hurts less than the quiet’ the raw leftover thoughts on a relationship that hasn’t quite gone right, but can’t go wrong either - an empty, silent nothing - tug at the soul of any listener. Additionally, as someone who identifies as queer, I can’t help but get more than a little bit excited about Troye’s recounting of his own LGBT loves, in a similar vein to Tegan and Sara - check out the video for WILD below for more of this.
Of course, it’s not just Troye’s hard work that needs praise here. The production of the electro-pop beats behind his mellifluous vocals is phenomenal, and the collaborative efforts on the EP are also stunning. Tkay Maidza’s rap contribution to final track DKLA is hypnotising, but the standout collaboration here is EASE, where Troye’s vocals harmonise beautifully alongside those of Broods.
However, the best track on the album is undoubtedly FOOLS. It goes back to the slightly softer side of Troye that I love the most - but it’s not a backtrack or a rehash, more a mature furthering of what makes him so special. Listeners know from the opening keys and lyrics ‘I am tired of this place, I hope people change’ that they are onto a winner.
But the best part of Troye’s music is that you can’t compare him to anyone. WILD is an original, inventive and overall exceptional piece of work: dare I say it, a masterpiece - one of the best EPs I think we’ve heard, and will hear, all year. My one criticism is that, at only 6 tracks long, it certainly leaves you wanting more. If you do one thing today, listen to this. And Troye, a full album next time please?
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