At some point, the night stops being about having fun and starts being about figuring out why you came in the first place.
Released today, October 9, Troye Sivan’s fourth studio album, She’s the Best, arrives after the sweaty, uncomplicated euphoria of Something to Give Each Other, the 2023 record that gave us “Rush” and “One of Your Girls.” And this time, he’s bringing some serious company along for the ride: Nicole Kidman appears in the video for the title track, while Madonna personally approved the use of a sample from her 2000 single “Music” for “Party.”
The references are huge, the production is expansive, and Troye is still very much in pop-star mode. But beneath all the sparkle, She’s the Best feels less interested in keeping the party going than in what happens when the lights start looking a little strange, everyone gets a little too honest, and going home alone suddenly feels like a bigger deal.
It’s still fun, it’s still sparkling, but it has a different relationship with reality — and with second thoughts.
THE GIRLS, THE GAYS, AND THE AFTERS
In his conversation with Apple Music, Sivan recalls getting ready for house parties in five minutes, only to arrive early and spend the rest of the time watching the girls get ready. The actual party was almost secondary. Being around them, talking, hanging out — that was the fun part.
It is a small memory, but one that feels immediately familiar to a certain kind of gay experience. Sometimes the preparation, the company and the anticipation are better than whatever supposedly exciting thing is waiting outside. You can spend an entire evening surrounded by people and still feel like you’re watching life happen from the side.
That tension runs through She’s the Best. Troye Sivan moves between sexual confidence, loneliness, friendship and the fantasy of finding someone who might finally make everything click. The album is full of desire, but it doesn’t necessarily believe desire will solve anything.
Musically, he moves away from the direct dance-floor rush of “Rush” towards trip-hop, hazier pop-rock textures and psychedelic production. His voice bends, distorts and slips into the instrumental backdrop, sometimes sounding less like someone performing for an audience than someone thinking out loud at four in the morning.
Sivan has increasingly leaned into speak-singing, letting the delivery sit somewhere between conversation and melody. It isn’t always immediately satisfying in the way a huge chorus is, but it gives the songs a strange intimacy, as though we’re hearing thoughts before they’ve been properly edited.
SEX, BUT MAKE IT EXISTENTIAL
Of course, this is still Troye Sivan. Sex is everywhere, but the album’s most revealing moments often arrive when the confidence starts to crack.
“Embarrassingly” turns masturbation into an awkwardly funny confession, while “Sex Star” gets into the exhausting business of reshaping yourself to become more appealing to someone else. The titles almost invite you to laugh before the feelings catch up.
Then there is “FF,” short for “Fuck Forever,” accompanied by what Sivan has called the gayest music video of his career. The visuals move through a beach house, bedrooms, bathrooms and underwater shots, with a homemade intimacy that makes the whole thing feel less like a polished pop fantasy than a private world shared with someone who might not even exist.
The video is romantic, but it is also an illusion. Sivan is imagining a future lover, building a whole emotional universe around a person he hasn’t met yet. The longing is real even if the relationship isn’t.
YOU GET IT
Instead of giving us the usual cryptic album teasers, he introduced the songs through memes explaining exactly what emotional disaster we were signing up for. “Embarrassingly”? Masturbation anthem, unfortunately. “Sex Star”? Bending and reshaping yourself to be more appealing to Him, whoever the fuck he is. “Troye Meets World”? Ayyyy, maybe everything’s not so bad after all!!
“FF” is his self-proclaimed gayest video yet, an intimate little fantasy of beach houses, beds, bathrooms and underwater romance. It feels homemade, almost like someone found a camera roll from a relationship that never actually happened. One of his own memes describes it as an “undying love song to a man who doesn’t exist,” which might be the most accurate summary of the whole thing.
“Party” arrives with an extravagant medieval fantasy, featuring Ian McKellen’s narration and a setting that feels somewhere between Saltburn, Game of Thrones and a very expensive tavern night. Shakespeare, but make it twink.
And because apparently we’re bringing physical media back properly, Troye says this is his favourite album cover yet, with oversized posters included with the vinyl. Honestly, bring back the posters. If magazines won’t give us giant foldouts anymore, at least let the vinyl do it.
YOU DON’T HAVE TO FIGURE IT OUT TONIGHT
There is something different about listening to this record in your twenties compared with listening to it in your thirties. At one point, loneliness can feel like a temporary problem with an obvious solution: meet someone, find direction, get your life together. Later, the answers become less immediate. You learn to live with uncertainty, sometimes dancing through it and sometimes making a joke before it gets too uncomfortable.
She’s the Best doesn’t offer a neat resolution. It drifts between the club and the comedown, between wanting someone and enjoying your own company, between the fantasy of being completely understood and the reality of having no idea what comes next.
The world around Troye Sivan continues to sparkle, even when he sounds unsure of where he stands in it.
Rush was about being in the moment. She’s the Best is about what happens when the moment stretches on, the sun starts coming up, and you’re still not quite ready to leave.