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Troye Sivan’s ‘Something to Give Each Other’: 32 Minutes, Not One Wasted

A record of joy and sorrow given in the same breath, ten songs that waste no second in their whole brief span.

By mitch·6 min read
A dancer moves beneath colored light, caught between rapture and sorrow, as the night wears toward its close.

Troye Sivan’s third album runs 32 minutes across 10 tracks, and it doesn’t waste a second of that time. “Something to Give Each Other” is a dance-pop record built for bodies, not background listening. Sivan wants joy and sorrow in the same breath, and he mostly gets both.

The album arrives as his most confident work yet. Where his earlier records circled around longing from a distance, this one is direct, physical, and openly queer. It’s a party record with a crash built into the design, the kind of album that knows the morning after matters as much as the night itself.

Rush Opens the Door

“Rush” kicks things off at 2:36, the shortest track here, and it sets the tempo for everything that follows. It’s a club track that doesn’t bother with a slow build. The song announces the album’s intentions in under three minutes flat.

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“What’s the Time Where You Are?” follows and cools things slightly. It’s a song about distance and hours apart that keeps the pulse steady without matching the opener’s speed. The two tracks together show the range Sivan is working with from the start, one built for speed and the other for patience.

One of Your Girls, Got Me Started

Two of the album’s best moments land apart from each other in the sequence, but “One of Your Girls” plants its flag early, at track three. It’s sly, wanting, and specific in a way pop songs about desiring someone else’s partner rarely are. The production stays clean and open, letting Sivan’s voice carry the weight of the words.

The song works because it doesn’t hide what it wants. Sivan sings with a directness that feels new for him, and the track’s slow-burning groove gives the lyrics room to breathe. It’s a song that rewards attention without demanding it.

“Got Me Started,” track seven, is the album’s most purely fun moment. It moves with a bright, driving energy that makes a song built for repeat listens. Where “Rush” opens the record with a burst of speed, this song finds a second wind well past the middle.

The difference between the two tracks is telling. “Rush” is about the first surge of feeling, while “Got Me Started” is about the moment that feeling becomes something you can’t stop. Both work on the dance floor, but they arrive at the same place from different directions.

In My Room, Silly

Two songs placed among the singles reward patience more than instant excitement. “In My Room” is intimate, almost sealed off in its focus, a song that turns inward while the rest of the album looks outward. It’s a quiet center in a record that mostly moves at full speed.

“Silly,” at track eight, does something harder: it takes a lighter, almost playful title and fills it with real feeling. The title suggests a joke; the song plays it straight. There’s a tension between what the name promises and what the music delivers, and that gap is where the track finds its power.

The song doesn’t resolve neatly. It holds onto its mixed feelings from start to finish, and that refusal to tie everything up in a bow is what makes it stand out. It’s a small moment that carries more weight than its short running time might suggest.

Still Got It, Can’t Go Back, Baby

The album’s middle stretch carries its heaviest weight. “Still Got It” is a study in self-possession dressed up as a dance track. It’s confident without being loud about it, a song that knows exactly what it’s doing and doesn’t need to prove anything.

“Can’t Go Back, Baby” leans harder into regret without ever slowing the tempo down to match it. The beat keeps pushing forward while the words look backward, and that push and pull gives the track its shape. It’s a song about being stuck between where you are and where you were.

Both tracks hold up well on repeat listens, and they give the record its emotional center. They’re not the flashiest songs here, but they’re the ones that give the album its depth.

  • “Still Got It” — track five, confident and plain-spoken
  • “Can’t Go Back, Baby” — track six, regret set to a beat
  • “Got Me Started” — track seven, the record’s peak of pure fun
  • “Silly” — track eight, a lighter title hiding real feeling

Honey, How to Stay With You

The album closes on “Honey” and “How to Stay With You,” two tracks that pull back from the higher energy of the earlier songs. They’re not as immediate as “Rush” or “Got Me Started,” but they do the necessary work of bringing the record down gently instead of just stopping.

“Honey” is warm and slow, a song that feels like the end of a long night. It doesn’t push for a big moment; it just lets the album settle into a softer place. The track works as a bridge between the dance floor and the quiet that comes after.

“How to Stay With You” closes the album at 3:16, ending on a note of quiet resolve rather than a big finish. It’s a fitting way to end a record that spends its whole length moving between wanting and letting go. The song asks a question and leaves it open, which is exactly the right note to end on.

What the Critics Heard

The reception matches what’s on the record. Metacritic has the album at 84. Reviews have broadly hailed it as Sivan’s most confident, adventurous, and best-received album to date, praising its unapologetically queer, sensual themes, polished dance-pop production, and emotional depth balancing euphoria with heartbreak.

That consensus points to a record that doesn’t just work as a collection of songs. It works as a statement of where Sivan stands as an artist, willing to be explicit about desire while still finding room for sadness.

The album’s critical standing comes from more than just the singles. It comes from the way the whole record holds together, with each track doing its part to build a larger picture. Sivan has made a record that rewards both quick listens and deep ones.

The Sound Sivan Builds

This is a tight, deliberate record. Nothing here goes on too long, and nothing feels like filler stitched in to fill out the length. Sivan knows exactly what he wants each song to do, and he gets in and out before the idea wears thin.

The production throughout stays polished without going flat, giving Sivan’s voice room to sit at the center of every track rather than getting buried under the beat. That’s a deliberate choice, and it pays off across all 10 songs.

The running time helps. At 32 minutes, the album never overstays its welcome, and each track gets enough space to make its point without dragging. It’s a record that respects the listener’s time, which is rarer than it should be.

Sivan’s Third Record

“Something to Give Each Other” earns its reputation as Sivan’s most confident and best-received album to date. It doesn’t change what dance-pop can do, but it carries out the genre’s promises with rare polish and purpose. Every song here knows its job and does it fast.

The record proves that scale isn’t the same as strength. You don’t need a long album or a big voice to make something that stays with you. You need to know what you’re doing and commit to it fully, and Sivan does exactly that here.

Ten songs, 32 minutes, and not one of them feels like a wasted trip. That’s the whole story.

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The recordSomething to Give Each Other Troye Sivan10 tracks · 33 min
  1. Rush2:36
  2. What’s the Time Where You Are?3:24
  3. One of Your Girls3:01
  4. In My Room3:13
  5. Still Got It3:29
  6. Can’t Go Back, Baby3:22
  7. Got Me Started3:18
  8. Silly3:39
  9. Honey3:27
  10. How to Stay With You3:16
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