Kathryn Wiener
Staff Writer

Troye Sivan has been working on his album “Blue Neighborhood” since the release of his first EP, “Wild” of which five songs are included on this album.

As of November, Sivan has over 3.7 million subscribers on his YouTube channel, 850,000 subscribers on his Vevo channel and 3.1 million Twitter followers, and is signed to EMI Music Australia.

On the release date, “Blue Neighbourhood” reached number one on the charts in nine major countries, reaching number four in the United States.

Pre-ordering began Oct. 15, causing fans to go crazy over its impending release. The hashtag #BlueNeighbourhood trended for almost three days in a row after the album release.

Billboard Magazine called Sivan “one of the hottest artist in the world under the age of 21.”

On Dec. 6, Sivan released a video called “The Whole Story” on his YouTube channel, telling the story of his singing dream and how his fans helped him keep this dream, and songwriting. And on Dec. 8, Sivan made his television debut on Jimmy Fallon, doing a short skit with John Cena and performing song “YOUTH.”

“Blue Neighbourhood” is an autobiographical, all the music describes Sivan’s upbringing while living in Perth, Australia, fast forwarding to his life now, full of traveling and living in hotel rooms. The album is about honesty, realness and truthfulness, and for Sivan, his truth was an LGBTQ one.

The whole album has ten songs and the deluxe version adds six more, but myself and two others have picked our favorites, which are also the more popular.

One of Sivan’s songs, Heaven featuring Betty Who, is a song about someone suffering in both religious faith and developing feelings for someone of the same gender. “Without losing a piece of me, how do I get to heaven?” Sivan sings in the choruses.

Sivan said that it was important to him that context was to also appear in his music as a message to send out to people.

“WILD”
Wild portrays a party like song to get everyone pumped up, with feeling behind the lyrics. Sivan sings about someone driving him wild and wanting to escape this blue neighbourhood he sees himself stuck in. The love he finds himself falling into hurts him but he doesn’t want it to stop. “I love the beat and the background music,” Coppell High School sophomore Andrea Weng said. “What he says and sings in the song has meaning behind it and the chorus is interesting, people don’t really pay attention but there are kids saying wild in the beginnings, chorus, and ending. He sings really well too and his voice goes with the music and blends in smoothly with the echoey beat. Just like the song, it drives me wild.”

“YOUTH”
This song has a more softer vibe to it, but still has a deep feeling like Sivan’s other songs. It kind of lyricalizes how social media has a part in his life and how even though his youth is publicized, Sivan doesn’t let it affect him because he still finds an escape from it. “The production of this song is what makes it interesting,” CHS sophomore Sophia Rathod said. “The lyrics were great as well, especially the chorus. The energy and power in his voice when he sings suited the song very well. I loved the texture of his voice, it made the song sound really nice all together.”

“for him. (feat. Allday)”
Personally my favorite song on the album. It feels like Sivan has a deeper meaning for the song, and it is for someone special. The song also describes how a forbidden relationship causes two lovers to run away from the hatred and forgetting the world around them. It also shows how they don’t need anything besides each other to keep them going and that you don’t have to say the words to prove to someone you love them.

Click here to view Sivan’s Vevo channel. You can buy “Blue Neighbourhood” on iTunes for $7.99 or listen to it on Spotify.