Many queer artists face the tug of war between expressing their authentic identity and achieving mainstream success. Pitfalls are lapped up and logged by chronically online internet trolls. When Jojo Siwa released Karma, her bold claim that she “invented gay pop” didn’t help an already rocky rollout. Especially the part about nobody having attempted such an extreme transition from child star to adult artist – Bangerz-era Miley Cyrus would disagree. On the other end of the spectrum, a major label release from Kim Petras switched this narrative. Many criticised Feed The Beast as they felt it swapped the trans euphoria of Slut Pop for inoffensive Eurodance geared for radio play. 

At a time when this constant battle has been increasingly difficult to navigate, Troye Sivan has in recent years emerged critically and commercially unscathed. His most recent album Something To Give Each Other was a celebration of queer joy and post-break-up liberation. While Rush leaned into this, One Of Your Girls took his experience of hooking up with straight men to the next level, dressing up in drag and giving Ross Lynch a lapdance in the music video. Yet for She’s the Best, the focus shifts slightly. 

Upon first listen of Party, this project seemed destined to follow in the same vein of Rush. With the repetitive chants calling back the chorus bolstered by an interpolation of Music by Madonna, it felt achingly familiar. But title track She’s the Best is oddly indebted to Lou Reed and follows the platonic admiration of a woman. For those who have seen the music video, Nicole Kidman is once again the muse for an iconic anthem (figure 1, Adéla). Unlike ADÉLA, this is less self empowerment and more voyeuristic awe and gratitude for an unapologetically confident woman.

Party isn’t the only track that borrows from Madonna, Canada Dry has a similar progressional beat to Vogue. Yet it doesn’t captivate in the same way and feels strangely stagnant in a way that no other songs on this project do. Sivan fares far better when leaning into more experimental territory. On this note, Le Boy is a far more interesting affair. Amidst fuzzy riffs, he seems far more comfortable in moments like this where he expands beyond what you may expect from a Troye Sivan album.

The record manages to be sex-positive in a way that doesn’t feel vulgar but starkly poetic with lines like “I saw a bead of your sweat dripping off of your head into your pearl moon”. This golden snippet from FF encapsulates the vibe perfectly. A sweeping shoegaze-addled opus, it’s a whimsically romantic ode to unrelenting lust. Even with a song title like Sex Star, he manages to remain tender. He yearns to quit drinking and partying desperately crooning “I just want you and a really nice house”.

You get the sense that Sivan isn’t chasing a template for a pop album but very much focusing on refining his own mould. There is no obvious concern for palatability and creating a commercially viable package. What especially makes it work so well is how it balances the duality between throbbing sensuality and the desire for domestic bliss; both exist in harmony. He can appreciate one’s “pearl moon” while also wanting “a really nice house” with them at the same time. Many stars have stumbled attempting reinventions and crafting elaborate narratives to prop up new releases. She’s the Best succeeds because it never feels forced, showing queer pop can be both organically experimental and deeply vulnerable.