Troye Sivan - Angel Baby - Single [Review]

It's truly fascinating how much a song can sometimes grow on you, and boy, did this one ever, so much so that I now consider myself having been certifiably insane for ever having felt like I didn't like it. Australian musician Troye Sivan followed up his second studio album Bloom with the heart-wrenching In a Dream EP which chronicled his feelings around his difficult breakup with model Jacob Bixenman. While In a Dream has grown on me and I now consider it really strong, I didn't instantly love it and felt that each release was dropping a bit in strength. (I didn't think that Bloom was as good as Blue Neighbourhood or that In a Dream was as good as Bloom.) "Angel Baby" was then released - seemingly as a standalone single - in the fall of 2021, almost a year following the release of In a Dream. As I said, I, for some ridiculously insane reason, did not like this song at first; perhaps I just wasn't in the right mindset and didn't find it relatable at the time. It's now my second favorite song of Troye's, almost tied with my top favorite, "BITE" from Blue Neighbourhood. It suddenly hit me how absolutely beautiful that it is, I think especially after I realized that I was in love with my best friend. It's, without a doubt, one of the most beautiful tearjerkers of a love song that I have ever heard. I interpret it as a love letter to someone who has helped the speaker believe in love again after having his heart broken: "You came out the blue on a rainy night, no lie," he croons in the pre-chorus. "I tell you how I almost died while you're bringing me back to life." My favorite line, however, which also supports that interpretation of the song lyrics, is the second half of the beautiful chorus which sounds like a lullaby: "Started giving up on the word 'forever' 'til you gave up heaven so we could be together." This is likely a reference to the Blue Neighbourhood track "Heaven" in which the speaker is making somewhat of a religious statement about his sexual orientation, saying that if he can't get to heaven by being himself, then maybe he doesn't want to go to heaven. "Angel Baby," as I said, is lulling and absolutely beautiful, and it is backed by '80s-esque synth and a soft '90s-esque beat begging to be slow danced to.

I also want to spend a little bit of time discussing the song's music video because, in addition to the song rapidly becoming one of my favorite songs of all time, the music video has also become one of my favorite music videos and has such beautiful depth to it (according to how I interpret it at least). The music video is undoubtedly one of the most sexual music videos that I have ever seen, with incredibly risqué and suggestive imagery such as (but definitely not limited to) Troye getting on the back of a guy's motorcycle, shirtless and with a jockstrap visible under his jeans (similar to how he is pictured on the single's cover art). The reason why I love this music video so much, however, is that there is such beauty in the sexual imagery (which is probably aided at least in part by the beauty of the song). The music video cuts back and forth between separate couples as well as shots of all of the couples together in what appears to be a softcore orgy. It's a mix of genders, body types, skin colors, and so forth, and some are fully clothed while some are topless. They are basically cuddled together, feeling each other up and making out with each other, and it is honestly just such beautiful imagery to me, and I even teared up the first time that I saw the video because of its beauty. I firmly believe that there is a beautiful metaphor at work here - that love begets love begets love. The different characters in the video all have loving relationships and are very clearly in love. They then spread that love to others and find unity in a group with whom they have that shared commonality of love. I don't, as I said, think that it's meant to be taken literally, especially since the music video has somewhat of a dream-like quality to it, especially in the group shots. Troye has said of the song that it "is my crack at an adoring, doting, love struck, mega pop, gay, power ballad," and I think that he nails that on the head so perfectly, as does the music video. Troye also released an acoustic version of the song which, while also beautiful, doesn't quite have the emotional power that the regular version has. There has not, to the best of my knowledge, been any news about a third album, but when it does finally arrive, it's going to be an absolute treasure if "Angel Baby" is a sign of what's on the horizon.