Album Preview: Everything We Know About Troye Sivan’s ‘Bloom’

Mike Nied | June 2, 2018 10:07 am

Troye Sivan is making big moves in 2018. Pop’s blossoming prince dropped his debut album, Blue Neighbourhood, to critical acclaim in 2015. Since then the 22-year-old has netted his first top 40 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, moved to Los Angeles, delivered an impressive set on Saturday Night Live and continued to hone his craft. Now he is returning to the scene with his sophomore LP, Bloom. The “There For You” crooner kicked off the project with his euphoric “My My My!” in January. One of the first genuine bangers of 2018, he followed it up a pair of buzz tracks.

The full album is scheduled to drop August 31, and he has plans to tour the US in support of the release. While Bloom is still shrouded in mystery, the hitmaker has opened up about what to expect when it finally drops. He teased various songs including a collaboration with Ariana Grande and hinted at the sonic direction. Meanwhile, fans have shown remarkable aptitude for detective work — piecing together enough information to get us very excited about the new era.

In celebration of the imminent release and his tour announcement, we have compiled everything we know about the album below.

“My My My!” “The Good Side” & “Bloom”:

In January the “Youth” superstar teamed up with Spotify to tease a forthcoming project. Later that week, he confirmed the release of his lead single “My My My!” Directed by Grant Singer, the accompanying video pays tribute to the Queen of Pop, Madonna. In it, Troye joyfully struts across an abandoned warehouse. The chic visual played up the track’s feel-good vibes and helped it land at the number 80 spot on the Billboard Hot 100.

In comparison, “The Good Side” showed off a different side as he apologized to a former lover for the end of their relationship. “It’s sort of a letter to that person to express apologies and sympathy. If I could change this I would’ve. This isn’t the way I wanted things to go. I’m hoping that this song, a couple of years down the line, will serve as a cathartic experience for the both of us,” he said of the release in L’Officiel.

The album’s racy title track returns to the dance floor. “I bloom, I bloom just for you,” he proclaims over racing synths and frantic beats. Heralded as “one of the dirtiest songs on the album” in an interview with Coup de Main, it received rave reviews upon dropping and amassed nearly 12 million streams on Spotify at the time of publication. On June 3, the hitmaker took to Twitter to confirm a “Bloom” video was dropping in the near future. In a short teaser he can be seen posing a voluminous yellow outfit that is complimented by a featured, ice blue hat. Rocking a bold, red lip, it is clear that the visual will be a fashionable affair.

Title, Release Date & Cover Art:

After raising interest with a trio of promising buzz tracks Troye announced the title of his forthcoming LP via a new app. In a post he confirmed the collection was fully mastered. On May 20 he took to Instagram to confirm an August 31 release date and to upload the official cover. Shot by Hedi Slimane, he wears a formal suit and delivers a serious pose in the black-and-white shoot. He celebrated the news by hopping onstage with Taylor Swift during a Los Angeles stop on her Reputation Stadium Tour. Prancing across the Rose Bowl, the duo performed his lead single, and Tay encouraged fans to keep an eye peeled for the album.

Tracklist:

1. “Seventeen”

2. “My My My!”

3. “The Good Side”

4. “Bloom”

5. “Postcard” feat. Gordi

6. “Dance To This” feat. Ariana Grande

7. “Plum”

8. “What A Heavenly Way To Die”

9. “Lucky Strike”

10. “Animal”

The Songs:

In a series of interviews, Troye opened up about several tracks on the album. In February 2018 he dropped a bombshell by announcing his collaboration with Ariana on “Dance To This.” “We were hanging out and I was playing her music and everything and we were just in the studio and I was like, ‘Would you ever sing on this one song?’ But I’m like so annoying about it. I’m like, ‘Would you ever, by chance, if you want, you don’t have to…?’ And she was like, ‘Please. This is going to be really fun.’ So then she just did it and it sounds like exactly like I dreamed it would,” he told the BBC Radio 1 Breakfast Show. Described as a “mellow dance track” in a feature with GQ Australia, he reiterated how much she added to the track. Since then he has taken to social media to tease what fans believe are lyrics.

Bloom’s second feature comes from Australian vocalist Gordi. She contributed to “Postcard,” a song about Troye’s relationship with model Jacob Bixenman. “One time I wrote my boyfriend a postcard from Tokyo. He’s the most scatterbrained person in the world and I love him for it!” he told i-D. “He missed it at the front door so had to go to the post office. Four or five days went by and he finally went to go get it, but by that point the post office had lost it. I thought it kinda sucked. It was one of those first moments where you realise that your partner isn’t perfect.” He explained the song birthed his favorite lyrics, and it was about “looking past your partner’s minor flaws and enjoying the good stuff instead.”

In i-D, he also opened up about the LP’s closer, “Animal.” Described as a “five-minute, 80s stadium love song,” it was created as an attempt to move beyond standard expectations of pop music. Containing the lyrics “I want you all to myself. Don’t leave none for nobody else, I am an animal with you,” it is said to build up to an “epic profusion of love.” In Out, it is described as a “morning-after ballad,” promising big things.

Meanwhile, in a profile for The New York Times, Troye shared details about a track called “Seventeen.” The song is set to open the collection and refers to an underage experience he had on Grindr. In Attitude, he explained the track was updated after some of the lyrics seemed predatory. “Originally the chorus of the song was ‘Here he comes / like he just walked out of a dream / doesn’t care that you’re 17’. And I was like ‘uh, that sounds a bit predatory’, and maybe it was a little bit.” However, it was all about reflecting on the experience neutrally. “That’s what I mean, it’s like, I’m not looking back at those experiences in a negative or a positive light”.

Producers & Writers:

Frequent collaborators Leland, Allie X and Bram Inscore have been closely involved with the production and writing of Bloom. Other notable talent to sign on to the LP include a team from Max Martin’s Wolf Cousins group. After an initial meeting, Troye worked with a multitude of producers from the group over the course of a week. The end result was three songs that he described as “some of my favorite moments of my whole album.”

He also linked up with Ariel Rechtshaid, who helmed hits for the likes of Solange, Sky Ferreira and HAIM. In an interview with Dazed, the producer shared some insight on the LP. “He’s an important figure. Even if you worshipped George Michael, at the high-point of his career he was in the closet. Troye is one of the few using his platform for the good of mankind. Love as an emotion is so potent; there’s a reason people sing about it. But (Troye’s songs are sung) from a perspective that has been largely ignored – or covered up. I feel proud to be a part of it.”

Although he recruited a bevy of pop’s most reliable, Troye has been closely involved in the album’s creation. In L’Officiel, he explained why it was so important to impart his own signature on the work. “When I think about artists that I admire, I always think they’re the captains of their own ship. Like Taylor Swift, Charli XCX or Carly Rae Jepsen — I can hear them writing and I know that beneath the pop star is a real creative. That’s how I want to be perceived to other people. That’s the way that I feel.”

Direction:

Based on the trio of buzz tracks that have emerged from Bloom thus far, it is shaping up to be an eclectic album. He alluded to the variety of tracks to L’Officiel. “Some [songs] are really light and airy and fun, some are a little more explicit, some a little darker.” Troye has listed the likes of This Mortal Coil, Sky Ferreira, Drake and The Replacements as influences, which may be why it has been described in a variety of ways. Out referred to it as his “sex album,” while others draw comparisons to the explosive synth-pop of the ’80s. According to the New York Times, fans can expect the album to be “louder, freer, Troyer.”

One thing that is clear is there has been plenty of evolution since Blue Neighbourhood. “I’ve made the album I always wanted to make,” Troye told GQ. “I would have made this album last time, but I just didn’t know how to do it.”

The Bloom Tour:

The best way to celebrate an album’s release is by hitting the road to perform. Troye will do just that when he kicks off The Bloom Tour this fall. He announced the show after a May 28 appearance on The Today Show. Cities were revealed for a North American leg of the tour via his Twitter account, and the hitmaker promised more cities (including shows outside the US) would be revealed in time. On May 30, he confirmed dates for the first leg and revealed that up-and-coming pop princess Kim Petras signed on as an opening act. The show launches with a performance in Irving, Texas on September 21, and pre-sale tickets are available on June 5.

How excited are you for Troye’s new album? Let us know below, or by hitting us up on Facebook and Twitter!

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