Wednesday 24 August 2016

MUSIC REVIEW – BLUE NEIGHBOURHOOD (Troye Sivan)



Let me just put it straight and simple; if you don't like Troye Sivan's music we can't date.

Avidole gave me Troye Sivan's Wild EP early this year. After about a month of laying idle on my phone, I listened to it one afternoon, while doing chores. I didn't really pay attention to the songs.

A month ago I was trying to sleep, I decided to sample albums I hadn’t played in a long while. Then I heard the track - Wild! Let's just say I didn't sleep again. I had to Google him. Who the heck was Troye Sivan? I can't exactly remember how I went from Wikipedia to YouTube that day in trying to unravel the pure talent named Troye Sivan.

I stumbled on his Blue Neighborhood trilogy videos comprising the songs (Wild, Fools and Talk me down). The videos are everything! Sad, beautiful story filled with the misery that comes with a lost love. The videos tell a story of innocence, young love, happiness, confusion, pain, loss and well…forbidden love.

The Trilogy video was recently nominated by MTV in the newly created category – Breakthrough long form Video against works by Beyonce, Chris Brown and Justin Bieber. Word on the street is that the category was specially created so Beyonce’s Lemonade can be given an award. Only time would tell.

I had to download the entire Blue Neighborhood album and I’ve been playing it ever since! My favourite track is Talk me down. There's this calming effect the song has on me. The song is about loss and dealing with the pain/loneliness that comes with it, the longing for the good old times. The opening lyrics hit me the first time I heard the song -

I wanna sleep next to you
But that's all I wanna do right now
And I wanna come home to you
But home is just a room full of my safest sounds
….
I'd rather fuel a fantasy than deal with this alone

My favourite lines of the song is –
I know I like to draw that line when it starts to get too real
But the less time that I spend with you, the less you need to heal

Another song I love very much is Heaven. The lyrics of the song is a no brainer. This is one song I relate to. The struggle to live right but then how much of you are you willing to sacrifice to live right or basically your entire happiness is on the line.

Without losing a piece of me
How do I get to heaven?
Without changing a part of me
How do I get to heaven?
All my time is wasted
Feeling like my heart's mistaken, oh
So if I'm losing a piece of me
Maybe I don't want heaven?

Wild, Fools, Blue, Youth, Suburbia, Cool, For him, Ease - are feel good songs on the album. Then songs like DKLA, Bite, Lost boy, Heaven and The Quiet would drag you down that beautiful melancholic road.

What I love most about the album is the deep lyrics, no song here has cheap writing or cliché wordings.

This is the kind of album you play when you need to take your mind off things. Take a trip to no place in particular, have Blue Neighbourhood album on playback. Relax your thoughts as you drive. The windows are down to allow the passing breeze beat against your face. The calmness of his songs takes you to that place of tranquility.

The one song I needed to have heard before the war - The Quiet by Troye Sivan.

This part of the lyrics just sums up exactly how I was feeling while the silence was raging:

I'd rather be spitting blood
Than have this silence fuck me up
....
And I don't wanna walk away
But you left me no choice
Only talking to myself here
Now you've muffled your voice
I'd rather have broken bones
Than feel myself turn to stone

Aaah! Just tell me
Say anything
Anything hurts less than the quiet

I don't mind that I know that you're wrong
I don't mind that you think you're right
All I want is a fight to fight

Anything but quiet

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