Culture

Troye Sivan’s new single Animal is a beautiful same-sex love song

By Daniel Megarry

9th August 2018

Hedi Slimane

Troye Sivan is back with another single, and it’s his most personal one yet.

Animal is a brooding, slow-burning love song that acts as the fifth single taken from the pop star’s highly-anticipated sophomore album Bloom, following other tracks My My My, The Good Side, title track Bloom and Ariana Grande duet Dance To This.

“Animal is one of my fave songs I’ve ever written. I wanted to make an epic, timeless love song about how whipped i am,” Troye explained of the song, leading fans to assume it’s about his boyfriend (and former Gay Times cover star) Jacob Bixenman.

He also teased the video for the single, which features footage of him and Jacob together looking adorable.

“I want you all to myself, don’t leave none for nobody else, I am an animal with you,” he sings on the moving track, which also sees him look forward to “building a home for two” in the future.

Listen to the song below.

Earlier this week, Troye’s fans celebrated the fact that it’s been five years since the singer publicly came out as gay, and shared their gratitude to him using the #thankyoutroye hashtag on social media.

“Woke up this morning to all of your #thankyoutroye tweets and the news that today is 5 years since I came out online!!!! Warmed my heart,” he wrote at the time.

“I’m the luckiest in the world to have you all. Thanks for a crazy journey so far.”

Back in May, Troye announced that his new album would be called Bloom, and that it would be released on 31 August. It shares its name with the third single from the album, which has a rather cheeky meaning.

Fans already knew about the track as Aussie pop prince previously spoke about during an interview, where he seemingly hinted at the real meaning behind the lyrics.

Nope, it’s not about his penchant for flower arranging or a certain British actor, but rather about gay sex. Bottoming, to be exact.

Asked by Dazed if that was the true meaning behind the song, Troye coyly replied with a wink: “It’s 100 per cent about flowers! That’s all it is.

“Call it whatever you wanna call it. I wanna play that song at every Pride. There’s almost a radicalism in just truth, you know? The most radical thing that I can do is share how happy I am.”

The lyrics in question include: ““It’s true, babe / I’ve been saving this for you / Promise me you’ll hold my hand if I get scared now / Might tell you to take a second baby slow it down / You should know I bloom, I bloom just for you.”

We’ll leave it up to you to decide what Troye’s really singing about.

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