TROYE SIVAN - IN A DREAM EP
Alex shares their thoughts on the latest Troye Sivan release, In A Dream, and lets you know whether they think you should listen or not.
Australian singer-songwriter Troye Sivan is back again with an immaculately conceptualised EP, In A Dream.
Recorded in his bedroom in Melbourne, In A Dream includes digital collaborations from a team all over the globe and helps to create a sense of togetherness while in a global pandemic where otherwise, these things would not be able to happen. Sivan had moved from Los Angeles to return to Australia during the Coronavirus pandemic, and “felt like a switch flicked one day and I was 17 again,” according to an earlier interview with the Sydney Morning Herald. Sivan also stated that the EP was a little more chaotic in layout than previous releases, but he felt as if it was necessary to get the true feeling across.
Opening up the album is ‘Take Yourself Home’, a very calm track with acoustic guitars, and Sivan’s vocals at the forefront. The song brushes on the idea of being tired where you are in life, as if Sivan is saying he was tired of life in Los Angeles and wanted to go home to Australia, which he ultimately did.
‘Easy’ discusses the idea of finding things easier with a person around, and perhaps even feeling unsafe when they are away. Even the video provides a saddened tone, as Sivan walks across the dark colored rooms, and watches himself on the TV in full color. “I can’t even look at you” he sings with layered vocal distortion effects, “You made it easy / please don’t leave me” follows on, conveying the heartbreak that the EP is based around, following on from the rumoured break up of Sivan and model Jacob Bixenman.
The truth and pain behind the lyrics only continues with the heartfelt song ‘could cry just thinking about you’. Including the lines “i don’t know who i am with or without you / guess i'm about to find out” envisions the way that Sivan feels lost in this new scenario of being alone. The instrumentals include synths, guitars, and a drum beat that perfectly match Sivan's voice and help to create the feeling portrayed by the lyrics.
‘Rager teenager!’ has an instrumental that builds up along with Sivan’s voice then calms down almost instantly, into a sea of Sivan’s voice and synths. The song almost seems like one straight out of an eighty’s film, or something that would play on a season of Stranger Things, and it accompanied with Sivan’s voice is astronomical.
The title track, ‘IN A DREAM’ is filled with a pop sound, and is easy to find yourself dancing to, however the lyrics are different. The lyrics are about leaving someone and not wanting to see them, however deep down you still want to be with them, and doing everything to not see them, but still seeing them in your dreams. “I won’t let you in again / it’s the hardest thing I’ve said” are some of the main lines in the song, and conveys that anger and confliction of a breakup where you want to see them or let them in, but you know that you really shouldn’t.
The EP in all, is chaotic in arrangement, and is full of Sivan being as vulnerable as ever whilst discussing something incredibly personal that happened to him.
Alex Davidson
★★★★☆