Single Review: Troye Sivan - Rush

From the very first time I heard the snippet of Troye Sivan’s “Rush” back in 23 B.C, I knew I was gonna like this song, because the hook was that good. And whilst I have become very dubious about getting my hopes up about a song based on a snippet, Troye has a pretty good track record when it comes to his music. So I knew something would have to go really wrong with everything either side of that snippet for the song to turn out bad.

Thankfully this wasn’t the case.

The hook of “Rush” is where the money is. It’s the whole song. So Troye already had a Summer hit on his hands when he released the snippet, and he knew it. And it not only says a lot about the strength of the song, but the artist that Troye has become. There’s always been a silent confidence that Troye’s has had when it comes to his music, right back from the days of Blue Neighbourhood. But with Bloom, there was a shift. Troye began to live out a little louder, and this reflected in his music. The kid from 2015 had outgrown the Blue Neighbourhood. They were a pop citizen of the world now, and this was no more apparent than when he did a song with Ariana Grande. But with his 2020 EP In a Dream, there was yet another shift. One which I feel cracked open the door to “Rush”. And the one song that did that was “Stud”.

“Stud” was Troye singing about his fantasies. An object of sexual desire. Giving in completely to his hedonistic side. And playing into body stereotypes and categories that some French baguettes are obsessed with labelling themselves and others with. Without saying the words, Troye is acknowledging that he is a twink with a type and he wants to fuck. This song right here was the genesis of the Troye we get on “Rush”. Even down to the preferential body type, which is something the music video for “Rush” has been criticised for. I ain’t getting into that now. That’s a WHOLE ‘nother post. But “Stud” was a great song which felt very concentrated in a way none of Troye’s other songs did. Everything about it, his image at the time and the person he seemed to be or was becoming, it all aligned with this song, and set a clear path of where he should go musically. And now here we are, with “Rush”, which feels very much like a continuation of “Stud”.

Whilst “Rush” (both the song and video) will be the subject of discussions concerning the queerness, and understandably so. “Rush” is more than just fence rattling and a gay cat amongst conservative pigeons just to be evocative. It’s also a statement about the type of pop star that Troye wants to be. “Bloom” put Troye on radars in a huge way, and he was on the path to being a pop bitch with songs like “My My My!”. But there was still a sense that he was finding his way with his sound and also his image. A sense of ‘I wanna be a certain type of pop star, but can I really do it?’. But with “Rush” Troye is saying ‘Fuck it’ and just stepping into it. He’s no longer wondering ‘if’, he’s just doing it. And I have to say, it looks and sounds good on him.

It’s always cool to watch an artist grow into themselves and push themselves out of their comfort zones. We’ve witnessed a similar journey with Jessie Ware, and Troye and Jessie share many parallels in this regard. Early on in both of their careers, neither Troye nor Jessie saw themselves as being anything close to the pop stars they were fans of, because everything associated with such pop stars seemed so far removed from the artists they felt they had to be. But as time went on, they both went through life experiences which changed them; Jessie becoming a mother which made her bolder in displaying her sexuality and Troye becoming less inhibited about his own sexuality. And these both became catalysts for them really stepping into their light. They grew into the pop stars their fans always knew they were, but were scared to be, and it’s paid off massively. Queerness has also played a massive part in these transformations; with Jessie and Troye unapologetically centering it in their music and videos, and both of their fan bases being overwhelming queer.

This sense of becoming also translates into the vibe of their music, which now feels celebratory. “Rush” is a celebration of sex, freedom and liberation; all packaged into a tightly knit pop song. The only problem with it is that perhaps the package is a little too tightly knit, clocking in at 2 minutes and 26 seconds.

Troye Sivan - Rush | EMI

I might as well just write a generic piece of copy about two and a half minute songs and just paste it into reviews, because I find myself mentioning it all of the time now. But, yep. Once again we have a song which has a 2 and a half minute runtime, and the brevity of the song is very noticeable, and the song also just ends. Just like “Padam Padam” before it. It’s so strange to me that writers and producers are like ‘Let’s make a dance record’, but then make it so short, when dance music is usually longer. It’s also strange to me that you’d craft a song with a groove with is so infectious and easy to get lost in, and yet you’d opt to yank people out of that feeling after 2 minutes, instead of giving everybody a four minute song to relish in the feeling of it all. Some may argue ‘That’s why it’s called “Rush” innit’. But, no. This shoulda been a three and a half minute song, MINIMUM. The music video edit of the song should have been the version released to streaming. It has a nice lil’ break in the middle and an extended outro, where everything is super slow and slurry, kinda like “Stud” - which plays into the sensation of being drunk, high or off your face on poppers. It’s so strange to me that they didn’t make this part of the actual song release.

The length of the song is a big strike against the song for me, because the song truly does sound incomplete, which is my biggest pet peeve when it comes to these Two and a half minute songs. “Rush” just ends. Some may say this is intentional because of the name of the song. But y’all know this isn’t the case. The song is short, because it’s a stupid trend in music right now, and it’s one that needs to end. This should have been a four minute song, and I’ve edited the song to be as such, so my extended edit is what I now listen to. Troye is losing streams from me as a result, but I need to listen to this song as it shoulda been, which is a full length song.

Troye Sivan - Rush | EMI

The music video version of the song also highlights how solid the mixing of the song is, as it plays with shifts in pitch, volume and tempo in a really cool way, which disrupt the song, but not in a way where it completely kills the groove. Not only do the shifts mimic inebriation, but it mimics the feeling of being in a club where the vibes between the three places you will end up; the dance floor, the toilets and the smoking area outside, all have completely different vibes, yet are all part of the same space and experience. This is conveyed strongly in the music video, but even without a visual context, it works. So it’s a shame the album version won’t include any of these things. One thing about Troye’s songs is that they are usually well mixed, which I always figured was to make up for his style of singing. Troye has a very lax style of singing. He never really owns songs, and instead opts for production choices and mixing do the heavy lifting, and it’s smart. Troye’s songs alway feel well rounded sonically, and his vocals are always mixed in a way where they sound bigger: lots of reverb, long delays, track doubling. Again, all tricks we got on “Stud”, implemented in similar ways and styles. Interestingly, the mixer of “Rush” is Alex Ghenea, who it turns out is the son of Serban Ghenea; one of several mixing legends who is probably best known for mixing near enough all of The Neptunes’ productions since back in the day. He’s clearly inherited his father’s ear for sound and taking minimal sounds and making them feel big, because it would be very easy for a song like “Rush” to sound tinny and muted.

Going back to Troye’s vocals for a sec though, I would have liked Troye to have put more of his vocals on the song. Some ad-libs here and there would have gone a long way to upping his presence across the song to own it more. Because you could listen to an instrumental of “Rush” which just has the ‘I feel the rush’ vocals for the hook, and the song would pretty much hit the same.

Troye Sivan - Rush | EMI

“Rush” continues the trend we’re seeing at the moment of being a club, house inspired record, with a sound that’s familiar, but difficult to pin down to one song because so many songs over the years have had the sound. The keys on the chorus of “Rush” are very characteristic of house in the late 90s. Awesome 3’s “Don’t Go”, The Greed Club Mix of Urban Hype’s “Living in a Fantasy”, Sterling Void’s “Don’t Wanna Go”, Happy Clappers’ “I Believe”. Shit, even Mark Whalber did it with “Good Vibrations”, which oddly enough has a very similar video aesthetic to “Rush”. Although the whole abandoned location full of dancers, shirtless men and an overarching theme of homoeroticism was also a characteristic of house during the 90s. And “Rush” also reminds me a lot of music from Sonic CD and Sonic R, the soundtracks of which were also influenced by house music and piano chords.

Between the familiarity and the sound being very on trend whilst also staying true to a sound which will remain timelines, “Rush” is absolutely going to reach the widest audience that a Troye Sivan song has probably ever reached at time of writing, which is an amazing thing, considering that Troye is one of the few male out and proud pop stars releasing music at this scale. It’s a shame there are more Black acts in the same position, but that’s a whole ‘other post. Trust that “Rush” will have the straights singing ‘I can take what you’re gonna give’.

“Rush” could very easily end up being Troye’s signature song.

Troye Sivan - Rush | EMI

One of the best things about “Rush” is just how fun and freeing the song is. I can imagine that long-time fans of Troye who liked when he was isolated and depressed during the days of Blue Neighbourhood are probably missing those types of songs from him, and I get it. But he seems to be having such fun on this song, and to have delivered such a good song, that it’s hard to knock him for the shift. And as aforementioned, fans shoulda seen this song coming after “Stud”.