Troye Sivan – 'She's the Best' review: after the party comes the longing
The Australian's fourth album is quieter than his hits: critics praise its trip-hop, house and shoegaze moments, with 4/5 from musicOMH and 8/10 from The Line of Best Fit.
Photo: Ted Eytan / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0 (cropped and resized)
Single video: YouTube · TroyeSivanVEVO · youtube.com
Single: She's the Best
Troye Sivan released his fourth studio album 'She's the Best' on Interscope on 9 October – the follow-up to 'Something to Give Each Other' (2023). Nicole Kidman stars in the video for the title track, which came out in August. According to Rolling Stone Australia, the song is a platonic love letter to the women, trans women and drag queens who shaped Sivan. The second single, 'Party', draws on Madonna's 'Music'.
Reviews are mostly positive. The Line of Best Fit (8/10) describes a turn away from the charged energy of its predecessor towards vulnerability and longing: the album sounds like the melancholy after a party, and much of it takes place only in Sivan's imagination. musicOMH (4/5) praises how the record pairs physical desire with a wish for domestic bliss and singles out 'Le Boy' and the shoegaze piece 'FF', while 'Canada Dry' falls flat by comparison.
NME critic Nick Levine calls the album a pleasantly puzzling follow-up, hears echoes of Madonna's 'Erotica', Air and George Michael, and finds that some tracks such as 'FF' drag. Rolling Stone Australia even rates it the singer's best album yet. On the Album of the Year platform the critics' average stands at 77 out of 100 after six reviews.