Troye Sivan’s Bloom Pairs Confidence With Vulnerability, and the Title Track Proves It

Troye Sivan’s Bloom is a pop record built on confidence and vulnerability at once. His second studio album runs ten tracks and 36 minutes, and it wants to prove he can sing about love, loss and growing up without losing his ear for a hook. The record is best described in terms rarely used for male pop stars: delicacy, transparency, and vulnerability.

Track by Track

Seventeen opens the album with a piano-led confession about being young and feeling everything too deeply. It is the strongest statement of intent on the record.

My My My! follows with a brighter, more playful pulse. It does not reach the heights of the opener, but it sets a light tone before the middle stretch.

The Good Side is the album’s first moment of control. It builds slowly, letting the melody grow before the chorus hits.

Bloom is the title track and the heart of the record. It is transparent and direct, and it earns the album’s name.

Postcard is a mid-tempo reflection on distance and memory. It is pleasant but slight.

Dance to This picks the pace back up with a driving rhythm. It is one of the more danceable moments on the record.

Plum is brief and delicate, a short pause before the album turns darker.

What a Heavenly Way to Die is the record’s darkest turn, a song about death and desire that lands with real weight.

Lucky Strike is a burst of energy, closer to pop radio than anything else here.

Animal closes the album on a high note, a big, anthemic finish that matches the ambition of the title track.

What Works

The record’s strength comes from pairing the playful and the heavy. Seventeen and Bloom are the tracks that justify the whole project. They show Sivan can write about feeling exposed without turning into a caricature of himself.

The weaker moments are not failures so much as filler. Postcard, Plum and Lucky Strike are competent, pleasant songs that do not demand attention.

The Numbers

• Album: Bloom, second studio album
• Tracks: 10
• Running time: 36 minutes
• Metacritic: 85/100

Sivan’s second studio album is a confident, mature pop record that balances playful, vulnerable songs with moments of control and power. It does not reinvent the genre, but it does not need to. The title track is the reason to hear it, and the opener is the reason to remember it.

The recordBloom Troye Sivan10 tracks · 37 min

1. Seventeen3:38
2. My My My!3:25
3. The Good Side4:29
4. Bloom3:42
5. Postcard3:37
6. Dance to This3:52
7. Plum3:07
8. What a Heavenly Way to Die3:08
9. Lucky Strike3:29
10. Animal4:25

2017 albums · album review · pop music · seventeen · Troye Sivan