Something to Give Each Other (2023)

Something to Give Each Other is the third studio album by Australian singer-songwriter Troye Sivan. It was released by EMI Music Australia and Capitol Records on 13 October 2023. It is Sivan's first album release in five years, following Bloom (2018). It features a collaboration with Spanish musician Guitarricadelafuente.

The album received critical acclaim. It was preceded by the lead single "Rush" which entered the top ten in Ireland, Croatia, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, and Russia. The second single "Got Me Started", entered the charts in nine regions including Australia and the UK. A third single, "One of Your Girls", was released concurrently with the album. It became Sivan's first album and second project to top the ARIA chart in his native Australia, and reached the top ten in Belgium, Germany, Lithuania, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway and the UK. It also reached number one on the US Dance/Electronic Albums chart. The album's fourth single, "Honey" was released on 17 May 2024 with remixes by Mura Masa.

At the 2023 J Awards, the album was nominated for Australian Album of the Year, while "Rush" was nominated for Best Dance Pop Recording and Best Music Video at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards; Sivan's first nominations. "Got Me Started" was subsequently nominated for Best Dance Pop Recording at the 67th Annual Grammy Awards. The album was nominated for the 2023 Australian Music Prize. The album was nominated for Best Record at the Rolling Stone Australia Awards. At the 2024 ARIA Music Awards, the album won Album of the Year, Best Pop Release and for Sivan, Best Solo Artist. The album was supported by the Something to Give Each Other Tour, which commenced in May 2024.

Background

Sivan teased the release of the album on 9 June 2023 on Instagram alongside a clip showcasing him throughout different years on a television starting from his first ever upload to YouTube and ending with a teaser for the music video of the album's then upcoming lead single "Rush". Sivan stated in the post caption that he had been making the album for over five years in between various commitments, such as his Bloom tour and the television series The Idol, in which he had a starring role.

Sivan announced the album name and release date and unveiled the cover art on 13 July 2023 on social media.This album is my something to give you — a kiss on a dancefloor, a date turned into a weekend, a crush, a winter, a summer. Party after party, after party after after party. Heartbreak, freedom. Community, sisterhood, friendship. All that.

Composition

Something to Give Each Other is primarily a pop album. It consists of both up and down-tempo songs, with the album's overall tempo notably slowing down after its opening track, "Rush". Nick Levine of NME observed that, after "Rush", "the album is mostly midtempo, though with a slightly warmer, gauzier sonic palette than Sivan’s previous albums". In his review of the album, Rolling Stone's Tim Chan described Something to Give Each Other as a pop record on which the singer draws from synth-pop, house, and "Nineties-esque club cuts", while Lauren Dehollogne of Clash described it as electropop. According to Megan McEnery of Her Campus, the album has more prominent influences of house and R&B than Sivan's prior work. Lyrically, the album explores themes such as sensuality, love, and loss. Thematically, Sivan said Something to Give Each Other is about "pop music being able to bring people together", with its title referring to "community built off a common experience of dance music, partying, fashion, humor, and all of these things that I love so much about my life and about my friends".

Sivan has promoted the album as "a celebration of sex, dance, sweat, community, queerness, love and friendship". Variety's Steven J. Horowitz said the album is "equally about grief and being unable to let go of the pain of a relationship’s end" as it is about "sex, relationships and community", identifying "human connection" as its central theme. The singer identified pop divas such as Janet Jackson, Christina Aguilera, and Britney Spears as primary sources of inspiration for the album.

Cover artwork

The album cover features Sivan smiling with his head between a friend's legs. Sivan stated that he wanted to smile for the album cover but did not smile throughout the day of the photoshoot because he felt awkward smiling and did not want his smile to look fake. The shot for the album cover captured when Sivan's friend kneeled down and tickled Sivan's ribs, which provoked a genuine smile.

Due to the cover's suggestive nature, countries such as Saudi Arabia and Indonesia, as well as countries in Eastern Europe, replaced it with the single artwork for "Rush" instead, which features a close-up of Sivan.