In a recent issue of Time magazine, none other than Kylie Minogue saluted Troye Sivan as “a perfect 2020s pop star”, at once “hero and confidant” to his fans. Her fellow Australian has spent most of his 31 years in the public eye, initially as a child actor and YouTube vlogger. He sees his albums as diaries from different stages of his life, another way of broadcasting himself to an audience. That might seem suffocatingly self-conscious, but the results are not.
Sivan’s music is warm, sensual and inviting. Not unlike Kylie, he gives the impression of being unaffected by fame. His 2015 debut, Blue Neighbourhood, was a coming-of-age self-portrait as a young gay man from suburban Perth. Its 2018 follow-up, Bloom, recounted youthful hookups and break-ups. Something to Give to Each Other in 2023 was even bolder in its treatment of sexual liberty following the end of a relationship.
She’s the Best is his fourth album. It arrives with the support of some serious star power — not just Kylie’s endorsement, but also an appearance by Nicole Kidman and the voice of Ian McKellen in videos for the singles, both of whom have previously acted with Sivan. There are cameos in songs from Lily-Rose Depp and Charli XCX, with whom he has toured.
The album wears all this opulence lightly. Its breezy outlook is epitomised by “Le Boy”, which finds Sivan “driving around” doing “things I enjoy” over a charmingly sunny west coast pop melody. But She’s the Best doesn’t match its superlative title.
It opens with the title track, a gauche affair in which Sivan recounts a day in the life of his ideal woman (“Pretty, funny, can fight”) in the manner of a softly spoken Lou Reed reading aloud a Cosmopolitan article. The paean concludes with Charli contributing an indistinct backing chant. The album’s celebration of femininity continues with “Party”, which samples Madonna’s “Music”, and the Janet Jackson-influenced “I Do This for You”. Depp features in “Lost Time”, breathily speaking in French about being “amoureuse”.
The pro-woman concept is thinly applied and less diaristic than Sivan’s previous albums while the music is more distracted than usual, with ungainly audio effects and abrupt endings. Matters improve when the singer reverts to the milieu of his previous album, rhapsodising in his unflustered voice about sex and romance with other men over smooth beats and generously textured harmonies. This subtly voluptuous mode is when he sounds most comfortable in an otherwise scattershot set of songs.
★★★☆☆
‘She’s the Best’ is released by Interscope