At nineteen, I was living off toaster oven hot dogs and trying to survive calculus. At nineteen, Australian-born Troye Sivan is an actor, singer-songwriter, and YouTube sensation with over three million followers. Now, hot on the heels of chart-topping single \u201cHappy Little Pills\u201d and a song for the soundtrack of hit film The Fault In Our Stars, <\/i>Sivan has released his major label debut EP (and third altogether), TRYXE. <\/i>\u00a0<\/p>\n
The five songs contained within run the gamut from soulful R&B to trance-tinged electropop, mashing genres together in a way that sounds totally self-assured and mature. Sivan\u2019s voice is silky smooth and his lyrics are all the more impressive when you realize they come from a precocious teenager. Still, this would be an impressive debut even from someone twice Sivan\u2019s age.<\/p>\n
Opener \u201cHappy Little Pills\u201d has been Sivan\u2019s musical claim to fame, and for good reason. Shimmers of synths weave underneath his sultry vocals, culminating in the haunting yet altogether catchy chorus: \u201cOh, glazed eyes, empty hearts \/ Buying happy from shopping carts \/ Nothing but time to kill \/ Sipping life from bottles…My happy little pill, take me away.\u201d The pulsing electronic beats add a layer of remove that echoes the hollow pleasures of the lyrics. Sivan\u2019s voice lends the track its human warmth amid the hazy cacophony of slickly produced sound. <\/p>\n
Sivan has a preternatural knack for songcraft, pairing complex soundscapes with stick-in-your-head choruses. The dynamic \u201cTouch\u201d is more evidence of this; it launches out with delicate, spare beats and airy vocals but then the bass drops and the track becomes something different altogether. The pairing of soaring synths and Sivan\u2019s passionate vocals demands repeated listens, showcasing an ability to know when to let songs breathe and unfold at their own pace. <\/p>\n
Meanwhile, \u201cFun\u201d comes across as melodic anthem, all sun-soaked vocals and twinkles of synths. And yet, listening to the lyrics is a different experience altogether, detailing an understated yet sinister perspective on Middle East violence with lines like, \u201cYeah, you gotta set them free, boy \/ \u2018Cause you know that\u2019s what they need boy \/ Yeah, you\u2019re gonna make them proud, boy \/ \u2018Til they put you in the ground.\u201d As the instrumentation swirls, the doubletracked chorus keeps repeating until the words become obscured and lose all meaning. It\u2019s a fascinating perspective, the haunting lyrics belying the pure upbeat pep of the song itself. <\/p>\n
Sivan is just as skilled at the downbeat ballad, as \u201cGasoline\u201d and \u201cThe Fault In Our Stars (MMXIV)\u201d showcase. The former is spare and restrained, coupling light piano and thrums of drumbeats with the pained, remorseful vocals: \u201cPlease, bathe me now, wash me clean \/ Set me on fire, like gasoline.\u201d Meanwhile, closer \u201cThe Fault In Our Stars\u201d is a more straightforward, sentimental ballad, cinematic in scope, and it\u2019s easy to see why it was included on the soundtrack to John Green\u2019s tenderhearted film.<\/p>\n
On this disc, Troye Sivan establishes himself as an emerging talent who is lightyears beyond what his age would suggest. TRYXE <\/i>manages to contain multitudes in the span of five short songs. Stay tuned for what 2015 has in store for this boy wonder.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":32272,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[9577],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-44025","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-troye-sivan","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44025\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=44025"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=44025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}